Alstom group seals 54.6 million USD rail signaling contract

Hanoi (VNA) - The Alstom Transport SA-Hasitect-Alstom Vietnam Ltd
consortium on Dec. 5 signed an EPC bidding package worth more than 42.7 million euros (54.6 million USD) to modernise the telecommunications and signaling system for the second phase of Vietnam Railway's Hanoi-Vinh line.

The upgraded section, part of the Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City line,
319 kilometres long and includes 36 train stations.

"Upgrading the line to satisfy domestic demands for transportation in the
future is absolutely essential because transport density and railway
transport through capacity here are so high," said Vietnam National Railway
general director Nguyen Huu Bang.

The project was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and funded in
2005 with a 40.3 million-euro loan from the French Ministry of Finance's
Treasury and Economic Policy General Directorate (DGTPE).

The two-phase project has a total cost of 51.3 million euros, of which
about 11.1 million euros is being paid by the Vietnamese Government.

The project will replace out-of-date telecommunication and signaling
systems on the Hanoi-Vinh section of the transnational railway to improve
the capacity, quality and safety of rail transportation.

Project director Tran Van Luc said that the contract would cover
surveying, technical planning, cost estimates, training and other elements
of the project.

The French Embassy first trade counselor, Guillaume Rousson, said, "DGTPE
and the France Development Agency has sponsored 142.5 million euros for
Vietnamese railways since 1990, proving it is a special concern of the
French Government for the modernisation of Vietnam".-Enditem