Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The has requested the railway management board to work closely with contractors to put Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway into trial operation in August.
Hanoi’s first elevated railway line was previously scheduled for a test run in September.
At a recent meeting to assess the project, Minister The said the trial operation was an important stage to check and ensure safe operation of the system before it is put into commercial operation.
He said that a European consultancy firm was evaluating the safety of the sky train system following the design standards.
The project was also previously scheduled for a test run in 2016, but that was delayed to late 2018.
The Cat Linh – Ha Dong railway project has total adjusted investment of more than 20 trillion VND (886 million USD) sourced from official development assistance loans from China.
The 13 kilometre Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban elevated railway will have 12 stations and one depot area. The railway is set to operate trains with carrier frequency of every two minutes and a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour.
Construction on the project was meant to start in 2008 but was delayed until October 2011. The line was originally expected to start running in November 2013. -VNA
VNA