The Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line project
According to the Ministry of Transport, the Chinese officials who arrived in Hanoi on February 28 are being quarantined at a local hotel for 14 days before returning to work following regulations from local authorities.
"These people have official passports and were granted visas to Vietnam to work on the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro project," the ministry said.Although the project desperately needs experts and workers to continue the much-delayed work after Tet holiday, Chinese staff with ordinary passports could not get visas to return to work on February 1 as planned following the Covid-19 prevention policies, the ministry added.
Construction of the 13-kilometre-long Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro project was started since October 2011 with an investment of VND18 trn (USD782m). It links Yen Nghia area in Ha Dong District with Cat Linh area in Dong Da District.
The national key project used ODA from China with China Railway Sixth Group Co. being appointed as the contractor.
The metro was planned to officially run on June 30, 2015 but the deadlines have already been delayed six times.
The metro was put in a 20-day trial run in October 2019 but due to several remaining issues, the official run has not been fixed.