page_title: Kunming–Singapore railway
section_title: In Laos
hierarchical_section_title: Kunming–Singapore railway / Planning & Construction / Central route / In Laos
context_page_description: The Kunming–Singapore railway, increasingly called the Pan-Asia railway Network is a network of railways, being planned or under construction, that would connect China, Singapore and all the countries of mainland Southeast Asia. The concept originated with British and French imperialists, who sought to link the railways they had built in southwest China, Indochina and Malaya, but international conflicts in the 20th century kept regional railways fragmented. The idea was formally revived in October 2006 when 18 Asian and Eurasian countries signed the Trans-Asian railway Network Agreement, which designates the Kunming–Singapore railway as one of several planned trans-Asian railways.
  The proposed network consists of three main routes from Kunming, China to Bangkok, Thailand: the Eastern route via Vietnam and Cambodia; the central route via Laos, and the western route via Myanmar. The southern half of the network from Bangkok to Singapore has long been operational, though a high-speed line has been proposed.
  As of January 2014, construction of sections connecting China with Vietnam, China with Myanmar and Laos with Vietnam are under way.
context_section_description: Boten-Vientiane railway, 421 km (262 mi) standard gauge line from Boten in Luang Namtha Province on the border with China, to Thanaleng, on the border with Thailand. This section is to be opened in late 2021.
  This line was originally planned as a high-speed rail joint-venture between the Laotian government and the China Railway Corporation, the Chinese state rail operator, and set to begin construction on 25 April 2011 but was delayed due to a corruption scandal that removed the Chinese railway minister, Liu Zhijun from office.  The Laotian government then became the sole investor in the project, which is funded with a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China that would cover 70 percent of the project's cost of US$7 billion.  The project was downgraded to a conventional speed railway with a maximum speed of 160 km/h instead of 200 km/h.  As the terrain in Laos is mountainous, 76 bridges and 154 tunnels will need to be built.  Unexploded bombs that have been dropped during the Vietnam War will have to be removed.
  The loan finance arrangement for this line was criticized by economists in the West as too expensive for Laos.  There is also controversy over villagers whose houses will be moved to accommodate the new railway line. One village, Bopiat in northern Laos, has already been moved once to allow the construction of a casino.  The National Assembly of Laos approved the project in October 2012, but the construction has not commenced because the Chinese state lender has been waiting since July 2013 for the Thai legislature to approve funding for the Thailand section of the railway line. On 22 July 2014, China's Exim Bank suspended loans to Laotian infrastructure projects, leaving the rail project in jeopardy.  On 28 July 2014, at a meeting with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping in Beijing, Lao People's Revolutionary Party general secretary Choummaly Sayasone asked the Chinese government to continue its assistance of rail development in Laos.
  In October 2014, Radio Free Asia reported that China had made a new pledge to finance the project as talks between the two countries continued.
  In January 2016, Singapore's Straits Times reported that ground was broken on the project in December 2015.
caption: Map of Laos
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