Laos, Thailand, China to build new railway bridge for freight

Illustrative image (Photo: laotiantimes.com)

Vientiane (VNA) – Laos, Thailand, and China are thinking about building a new railway bridge, running parallel to the first Lao-Thai friendship bridge, to assist the cross-border transport of containers, according to the Lao media.

The construction will start 30m from the first Lao-Thai friendship bridge and have a total of four railway lines.

At the moment, due to a difference in track gauges, Thai cargo containers headed for China need to be unloaded from trains at a container terminal in Nong Khai and loaded onto container trucks to cross the Lao-Thai friendship bridge to Vientiane. Here they are then loaded onto the Laos-China railway for shipment to China.

Thailand is keen to use the railway to ship more agricultural products to China, particularly orchids, rubber, cassava, palm oil, and fishery and livestock products.

More than 1 million tonnes of goods have been transported on the Laos-China railway since it became operational eight months ago. Goods worth 1.35 billion USD have been transported on this route./.