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KUNMING, Nov. 29 (Xinhua): The longest tunnel on the China-Laos railway was drilled, completely marking new progress in the construction of the railway that is expected to be inaugurated by the end of next year.
The 17.5 km long Anding Tunnel, in the border area of Yuanjiang and Mojiang counties in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, is a first-class high-risk tunnel with unfavorable geology such as faults, noxious gas, karst and soft rock, according to sources with China Railway Kunming Group Co. Ltd.
So far, the Yuxi-Mohan section of the railway, which links Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, and Vientiane, the capital of Laos, has completed a total investment of 11 billion yuan (US $ 1.67 billion) this year and 47 , 35 billion yuan since the start of construction. With the Anding tunnel drilled, workers have completed 98.8 percent of the tunnel projects on this Chinese stretch.
Using China’s technical standards and equipment, the railway, which spans more than 1,000 kilometers, is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic by the end of 2021.
The railway is a project of strategic coupling between the Belt and Road Initiative and Laos’ strategy to transform itself from a landlocked country into a land-connected hub. The railway will reduce the travel time between Kunming and Vientiane to half a day. Final product
Meanwhile, a Chinese company in Laos, Khoukham Steel Industry Sole Co, Ltd, has recently shipped rebar to Cambodia, making the first export of steel produced in Laos.
About a dozen trucks loaded with more than 300 tons of rebar left the southern Laos border gate for Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, on 20 November. This batch of rebar was produced at the Khoukham Steel plant in Savannakhet province, some 410 km east of Laos capital Vientiane.
The Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce confirmed to Xinhua on Friday that the shipment is the first batch of domestic steel exports from Laos.
Khoukham Steel, established in 2018 in Laos with investment from China, is a steel company engaged in the production, sale and after-sales service of steel. – Xinhua
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