The Hanoi urban sky train project is not likely to be completed before its December 31, 2015 deadline, the Railway Project Management Board admitted.

So far, only 320, or 76 percent, of the project's pedestal footings, as well as seven foundations for its 12 train stations and 336 of 806 concrete blocks, have been assembled and completed.

The 19 households at the site where the future Cat Linh station will be located have yet to agree on compensation settlement.

This alone has put the construction of the Cat Linh station seven months behind schedule, and it will take up to a year to finish the building after the site is cleared.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban sky train project was approved in 2008 with a total investment of 552 million USD. This was readjusted to 892 million USD, a 61.5 percent surge, last April.

The construction phase is supposed to be completed at the end of December 2015, and the trial phase is supposed to begin in January 2016, said Nguyen Manh Hung, acting director general of the Railway Project Management Board.

Construction will have to be completed after the deadline that Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai and Transport Minister Dinh La Thang set for the project. Hai and Thang expected the trial phase to begin in October 2015 and commercial activities to commence two months later, in December.

At a recent working session, the transport minister ordered project contractors to step up efforts to address issues that hindered construction speed and submit a progress report to the ministry for review.

The board must also prepare a detailed report on what project categories require cost adjustments, along with the specific reasons, Thang added.

VNA/VNN