The railway projects' management board, general contractor, and relevant units have to ensure that the Cat Linh-Hadong elevated urban railway—the first project of its kind in Vietnam—will be put into trial operation in October 2018, said Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.

Minister The at the operation control centre

On May 12, the minister made a fact-finding trip to the construction site to check the progress of the operation control centre (OCC), depot, as well as monitoring areas at Thuong Dinh and Cat Linh stations.

"The Cat Linh-Hadong elevated urban railway is the symbol of the friendship between Vietnam and China. The largest obstacle to the project—the delayed disbursement of an additional $250.6 million—is now solved. Thus, there are no other reasons for further stagnation," The concluded.

"The project must be put into commercial operation by December 2018."

Vu Hong Phuong, deputy head of the board, said that in April and early May 2018, the project saw huge progress in construction. At present, the remaining 5 per cent of the project workload is being finished.

Regarding equipment purchase and installation, Phuong said that 90 per cent of all equipment and materials are available at the construction site and 76 per cent of the equipment is already installed.

VIR