VietNamNet Bridge – A transport official on Monday denied rumours that Hanoi’s prolonged Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project would be delayed for the fifth time till 2021.

Trial run of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway in Hanoi is due to start in September this year. - Photo cafef.vn

He said the trial run would start in September this year.

News broke out last weekend that the Ministry of Transport had proposed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to adjust the timeline of the railway project to 2021 for the last stage of construction and for public use. This might have started speculations that the project was delayed until 2021, said deputy transport minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong.

“The year 2021 is when China’s responsibility for the project’s maintenance ends,” he said.

The 13km-long railway line, running from Cat Linh in Ba Dinh District to the suburban district of Ha Dong, cost approximately US$868 million, of which two-thirds were loans from China. The construction officially began in 2011 and was initially planned to be completed in 2014, until several delays dragged the project to a yet unknown date of wrap-up.

Dong said the technical trial runs would start in September and would last between three to six months. Such trial tests will then decide the date for commercial operations, he added.

The railway project management board deputy director, Vu Hong Phuong, also confirmed the timeline for trial runs, saying 95 per cent of the construction was complete.

He added that the construction of the project would be officially over in the last quarter of this year.

Source: VNS