The Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway is scheduled to be put into trial operation in October this year and officially launched on December 31 this year, General Director of Railway Project Management Unit Le Kim Thanh said.

He said that 70 percent of the railway project had been completed since it broke ground in September 2010. Thirty percent of the project was finished in 2015 alone.

Construction of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong Urban Railway project at Hoang Cau Lake in Dong Da district, Hanoi.

The management board of the project was making efforts to finish installing girders by the middle of April while stations and a depot were set to be completed in June to install facilities by the end of September, Thanh added.

To speed up the project's progress, the Ministry of Transport recently asked the Railway Project Management Unit, consultant firms and the contractor to commit to pledges in the contract and meet the project's deadline.

Last October, in preparation for the railway's official launch, a model of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway went on display to allow people to give feedback. The feedback will be taken into consideration and serve as a foundation when revising the trains' design.

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway, which will stretch over 13km, will have 12 stations and a depot linking Dong Da district's Cat Linh street and Ha Dong district's Yen Nghia bus station.

Once completed, the trains, which are being manufactured by China's Beijing Subway Rolling Stock Equipment Ltd., will be able to serve up to 2,110 passengers with an average speed of 35km per hour and a maximum speed of 80km per hour.

Trains with six to eight carriages each will run every two minutes from 5am to 11pm every day.

Source: VNA