A Government agency set up to monitor the quality of State transport works has given approval for a Chinese contractor to build and import the single train needed for the 13.5km elevated railway line between Ha Dong and Dong Da districts for a cost of US$63.2 million.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project is under construction. The single train needed for the 13.5km elevated railway line will be built and imported at a cost of US$63.2 million.  

The new line will be the first elevated line in the capital. Known as the Cat Linh – Ha Dong line or Route 3, it is one of eight urban railway routes envisioned in the Ha Noi transport master plan approved by the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The quality of construction is being overseen by the Transport Engineering Construction and Quality Management Bureau, which comes under the Ministry for Construction.

The bureau approved a plan to buy the train, which is more expensive than another option offered by the Chinese, a train for $51.7 million

The plan was approved, based on an appraisal made by the AASC Auditing Co.Ltd on the train's price, the ministry's newspaper Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper reported.

The price includes the train's production, transport, installation, customs' fees and insurance for delivery to the project site – this alone accounts for US$4 million – but does not cover the line's signal system.

The project's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor is the China Railway Sixth Group (CRSG) 's overseas construction company.

The project, with a total investment of VND8,700 billion ($402 million), is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. It will be officially opened in March, 2016, according to vnmedia.vn.

There are 12 stations along the first route – Cat Linh, De La Thanh, Thai Ha, Duong Lang, Nga Tu So, Dai hoc Khoa hoc Tu nhien (Natural Sciences University), Ben xe Ha Dong (Ha Dong bus station), La Khe, Van Khe and Ha Dong.

Train services will operate from 5am to 10pm daily, including holidays.

Construction of the railway, which has been being carried out above the median strip of several busys roads, has raised safety concerns for road users.

Last November, a steel bar felled off a scaffolding high above to the road, killing a motorist on the spot and injuring three others while they were driving down Nguyen Trai Street.

In the same street last December, scaffolding collapsed, partly burying a moving taxi cab with four people inside. The incident left the cab driver with minor injuries.

VNS