Pan-Asian railway to start work

The China-Myanmar section of the pan-Asian high-speed railway network will begin construction next month, rail expert Wang Mengshu from China's Academy of Engineering said.

A 30-kilometer-long tunnel will be dug in mountains in Yunnan Province and extend to the border of Myanmar, Wang was quoted by Beijing Times.

A branch line is planned from Myanmar to Thailand while the main line will traverse through Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and end in Singapore — forming a track from China to Southeast Asia, he said.

The pan-Asian high-speed railway is one of three major cross-border high-speed railways to be built after China launched the export of its high-speed railway expertise in 2009.

The other two networks are the Eurasian high-speed railway and the Central Asian line, both of whose domestic sections have started construction. The parts of the railways across borders are still being negotiated between China and the other involved countries.