1st China-Vietnam border checkpoint railway tunnel shovels onward

A construction crew completes the tunneling and digging of the Tonguling Tunnel. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The digging and tunneling for the Tongguling Tunnel, which is the longest tunnel on the Fangchenggang-Dongxing Railway line in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was completed on Nov 9 after over 900 days of construction.

All tunnels on the railway line are now connected, and the Tongguling Tunnel is the first in China to connect a railway line to a China-Vietnam border checkpoint. The project is in the process of completing its next steps such as track laying, and electronics and communication engineering.

The Fangchenggang-Dongxing Railway stretches 46.9 kilometers with a designated speed of 250 km per hour, and has a total of eight tunnels with the Tongguling Tunnel stretching 3,790 meters. 

Liao Gang of China Railway Nanning Group said that the rail will boost transport between Fangchenggang and Dongxing once operational and the travel time between the two cities will be shortened from the previous 90 minutes to 20 minutes.

A total of 1,496 China-Vietnam cross-border trains was operated from the January to October period and 272 of them were container trains, growing by 57.5 percent and 112.5 percent separately.

Qiu Zumeng, director of the Fangchenggang transport bureau, noted that the city is now striving to become a national logistic hub city featuring both sea ports and land checkpoints.