Construction of all communication towers along China-Laos railway completed

Photo taken on Oct. 12, 2020 shows a communication tower along the China-Laos railway in the north of Vientiane, Laos. (China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau Group Co., Ltd./Handout via Xinhua)

The construction of all 67 communication towers along the China-Laos railway has been completed, marking a major progress in the project.

VIENTIANE, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The construction of all 67 communication towers along the China-Laos railway has been completed, marking a major progress in the project.

Half of the railway's communication towers are located in tropical uninhabited mountainous areas, with complex geographical conditions and poor traffic conditions, which has brought difficulties to the construction, Xiao Qianwen, the general manager of the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., told Xinhua on Sunday.

The company is a joint venture based in Lao capital Vientiane undertaking the construction and operation of the railway.

Chinese engineers work at the installation site of a communication tower along the China-Laos railway in the north of Vientiane, Laos, May 15, 2021. (China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau Group Co., Ltd./Handout via Xinhua)

During the rainy season, large amounts of the needed materials and equipment can only be carried piggyback to the construction sites by pack animals, Xiao said.

Li Chunsheng, who heads the team from China Railway Construction Electrification Bureau Group Co., Ltd. (CRCC-EBG, simplified as EBG) to carry out the railway's communication project, said the construction of all the communication towers was done on Saturday and that in order to complete the tower installation on schedule with high quality, his team made detailed arrangements when confronting the difficult construction conditions, including the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

Aerial photo taken on July 24, 2020 shows the China-Laos Railway's Ban Ladhan Mekong River Super Major Bridge in Laos. (Photo by Pan Longzhu/Xinhua)

The China-Laos Railway is a project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.

The over-400-km railway will run from Boten border gate in northern Laos bordering China, to Vientiane with an operating speed of 160 km per hour.

The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of the Chinese management and technical standards. The construction of the project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic in December 2021.