Sixth Thai-Laos friendship bridge to complete in 2025; Laos-China railway construction steaming ahead

BANGKOK, Oct 17 (Xinhua): Thai Minister of Transport Saksayam Chidchob said his ministry has scheduled to complete the construction of the 6th Thai-Lao friendship bridge by 2025.

During his trip to the northeastern provinces of Amnat Charoen, Yasothon and Mukdahan provinces, Saksayam said he is in discussion with various agencies in speeding up the construction of the bridge before he can sit down with the Lao government to schedule the date of bridge's opening ceremony.

The minister said the 4.36-billion-baht (US$140-million) new bridge would stretch 1.02km and link Thailand's Highway 2112 in Na Tan district of northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province and Highway 13 in La Khone Pheng town of Laos.

Saksayam said he expected both Thailand and Laos to share the cost of the bridge construction.

Land will be expropriated in the next two years, he said.

Construction of the bridge could start in 2023 and be completed in 2025, the minister said.

The 6th Thai-Lao friendship bridge, once built, is expected to enhance border trade and promote tourism between Thailand and Laos.

Meanwhile, the installation of the first carrier cable of overhead contact system for the China-Laos railway has completed 1,322m in length in the section between the Vang Vieng city and the capital Vientiane, the Chinese contractor company said Friday (Oct 17).

China Railway Wuhan Electrification Engineering Group (WEEG), the company undertaking the railway's mechanical and electrical engineering projects told Xinhua that the work was done on Thursday.

According to the company, it has overcome a lot of difficulties including those caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to successfully launch the work of building the carrier cable so as to ensure the whole project to be completed on schedule.

In order to guarantee a smooth work, the WEEG engineers have made laborious preparations including strict health protection and production safety measures, besides construction schemes, it told Xinhua.

In the first stage of its implementation of the contracted mechanical and electrical work in laos for the railway, the company erected the first engineering pole for the overhead contact system in mid-March, according to it.

The year of 2020 is crucial for completing the railway project's engineering part, according to it. The whole railway started its construction in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic in December 2021.

The China-laos Railway is a strategic docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the lao development plan to turn the land-locked country into a land-linked hub.

The 422-km railway, with tunnels totalling 198 kilometers in length and bridges of a total length of 62 kilometers, will run from the Boten border gate in northern laos, which borders China, to Vientiane, with an operating speed of 160 km per hour.

The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built completely with the Chinese management and technical standards.- Xinhua