Lao government approves construction of Lao-China high-speed rail project

The Lao PDR government has approved the construction of the 55.12 trillion kip Lao-China high speed rail project, although the Chinese government has pulled out of the project. The 421 km rail line will involve the construction of 76 tunnels and 154 bridges, including two bridges across theMekongriver. The tunnels and bridges alone represent over 60 per cent of the total route. In all, the rail line will have 31 stations and pass through Boten, Luang, and Namtha province toVientiane. The new rail line will allow a passenger train to run at 200 km per hour from Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, to the China–Lao border, and then on to Vientiane and Thailand.