On March 30, China Railway No.2 Engineering Group’s Vientiane rail welding factory completed the welding of the last 500-meter-long rail on the Boten-Vientiane section of the China-Laos Railway, which marked that all the welding work of 500-meter-long rails has been successfully finished.

Taking into account the needs of the project, engineers on the welding line innovated the relevant equipment and process layout. Thanks to the cooperation of the employees of both China and Laos, the rail welding factory took 16 months to weld a total of 32,376 rail joints along a line stretching 427 kilometers. The factory welded the first 500-meter-long rail for the China-Laos Railway on December 2, 2019.

The Lao section of the China-Laos Railway starts from Boten, the China-Laos border port in the north, and extends south to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, with a total length of 422.4 kilometers. With a designed speed of 160 kilometers per hour, the electrified railway is built to facilitate both freight and passenger transportation. Contracted by China Railway No.2 Engineering Group, the track-laying work of the Boten-Vientiane section is planned to be completed in May, and the line is expected to be open to traffic in December this year.