China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group (CREC-8) drilled through the Yingpanshan Tunnel on the Yuxi-Mohan section of the China-Laos railway. (photo/Xinhua)

China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group (CREC-8) drilled through the Yingpanshan Tunnel on the Yuxi-Mohan section of the China-Laos railway on May 4, marking major progress in the construction of the section and the whole railway line.

The 3,175-m Yingpanshan Tunnel is located in the Simao District, Pu’er City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese engineering company has comprehensively implemented anti-epidemic prevention and control measures during the construction period. In order to keep the project on schedule, more than 200 constructors stayed at their posts during the May Day holiday. They successfully bored the tunnel on May 4, National Youth Day.

The completion of the Yingpanshan Tunnel has helped mitigate the risks associated with construction and laid the foundations for the subsequent steel beam installment and track laying work, providing a guarantee for the completion of the section and the whole railway line on schedule.

The China-Laos railway is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic by the end of 2021 and will be the first international railway project that is mainly funded and built by China, adopting Chinese management and technical standards. With a total length of over 1,000 km, the line is expected to run from Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos, in half a day.