HÀ NỘI — The first train of the Cát Linh-Hà Đông urban railway has been installed safely on the track, the Railway Projects Management Unit (under the Ministry of Transport) announced early Tuesday.

The site that received the first train was from JR02 to JR06 pillar, La Khê station, on Quang Trung Street, Hà Đông District.

The whole maneuver, using a 250-tonne crane to set the train on the elevated rail track, was done from 10:30pm Monday to 5am Tuesday.

According to Vũ Hồng Phương, deputy director of the Railway Projects Management Unit, this is the first train of the batch of 13 that will arrive in Hà Nội.

The train features four locomotives and carriages and was transported from China to Hải Phòng City on February 12.

During the time when the carriers are being prepared to get installed and during installation, traffic near La Khê station and the Quang Trung-Lê Trọng Tấn intersection will be temporarily halted.

People in the neighbourhood gathered to watch the installation of the first train onto the rail track. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

Minister of Transport Trương Quang Nghĩa on Monday morning personally inspected transport of the first batch of locomotives and carriages for the urban railway, which were for the time being placed on the extended Lê Trọng Tấn Street in Hà Đông District. He also praised the efforts of the project personnel involved in ensuring the train got to Hà Nội safely.

The trains were manufactured by the Beijing Subway Rolling Stock Equipment Co. Ltd. Each train is 79m in length, 3.8m in height and 3.8m in maximum width. The designed maximum speed of the train is expected to reach 80km/h and the operating speed is some 35km/h.

The rest of the fleet will be transported from China to Hải Phòng Port then to Hà Nội in three rounds in the coming months, and test runs are scheduled to be conducted in October. — VNS