The China Southern Power Grid Company has completed the installation of electricity transmission poles along the Laos-China Railway, saying the railway will be a green, low-carbon electrified railway.
The external power grid project along the Laos-China railway has been completed and is now ready to supply power to the railway, which is scheduled to officially open in early December this year.
The project includes 2,220 transmission poles with a total length of 936 kilometers with links to 24 traction substations, according to KPL.
The project has been conducted by the China Southern Power Grid (CSG), as well as Electricite du Laos Transmission Company Limited (EDLT), a joint venture company formed last year to operate the power grid in Laos.
According to Chinese experts, the Laos-China Railway is a symbol of the Belt and Road Initiative and a critical component in Laos’ transformation from a landlocked to a land-linked country.
Ms. Yang Yonghui, Chair of the Board of Directors of Lao-China Electric Power Investment Co., Ltd., said, “We will work with Electricite du Laos (EDL) to build trust in the supply of electricity to the Laos-China Railway, and we will work with all sectors to ensure prosperous development.”
Speaking of the completed project, Mr. Huang Wun Kang, Director of Electricite du Laos Transmission Company Limited, said “the mountains and rivers of Laos and the mountains and rivers of China are the heritage of both nations, and therefore we have built this railway to be a green, low-carbon railway that will become a path for development this century that will bring many positive developments.”
Meanwhile, Director-General of the China Southern Power Grid Company (CSG), Zhong Xiaotao, says the Laos-China Railway will be a green and low-carbon electrified railway that will contribute to further development in many areas.
He says the significance lies in environmental and ecological protection by using the same building standards and cutting-edge technology utilized in China to decrease environmental risks, while the electricity transmission pole project has helped train local people in grid operation and management with the goal of creating jobs and assuring power supply.
Laos and China began the country’s first build-operate-transfer power grid project for the Laos-China railway in early last year.
The project, running along the China-Laos railway through five provincial administrative regions in northern Laos, has seen 20 circuits of 115kV transmission lines.
The Laos-China Railway will run some 426 kilometers, including 198km of tunnels, and will traverse 62km of bridges. It will run from the Boten border gate, connecting Northern Laos to China, down to Vientiane Capital, with an operating speed of 160km per hour, and is now over 90% percent complete.
