The Railway Project Management Unit (RPPM) under Ministry of Transport has just announced that the Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated railway, the first of its kind in Hanoi, will be ready for commercial operation before the upcoming Tet holiday, which falls in early February 2019.
Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated railway to officially run before Tet holiday
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Since July 2018, the whole route has been connected to the power grid. Since August, the Chinese general contractor has carried out tests on equipment, such as checking the power supply, information and signaling systems as well as running each train, the RPPM added.
According to the RPPM, the preparation work has been basically completed and qualified to put the trains into technical operation as planned.
In particular, the RPPM said that after the railway will be trialed for three to six months from September 20, all 13 trains of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway will be put into operation. During the trial, trains will start from Yen Nghia station in Ha Dong district to Cat Linh station in Dong Da district and will stop at each station for one minute.
The move aims to determine whether the entire project has met the technical standards as designed, the RPPM said, adding that the inspection has been completed.
The Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway project with 12 stations and one depot area has investment of 868 million USD sourced by official development assistance loans from China. The railway project has 12 trains, including 48 carriages. Each train with four carriages can carry some 1,000 passengers.
The 13 kilometre railway is set to operate trains with a 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 supposed to be completed by June 2015, but after the progress adjustment, the project has just taken technical operation on September 20.
