VIENTIANE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- With the first engineering pole for overhead contact system being successfully established by China Railway Wuhan Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (WEEG), the M&E (mechanical and electrical) engineering of China-Laos railway has officially entered the construction phase on Sunday.

The year of 2020 will be crucial for the engineering construction of the M&E, railway track, station building, etc, and for the completion of the railway's civil engineering work such as tunnels, bridges and roadbed's construction, Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., the joint venture in charge of the railway's construction and future operation, told Xinhua on Sunday.

Confronted with difficulties resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, WEEG has tried to organize various construction resources without any delay, since this January. The Chinese engineering company has managed to handle the epidemic prevention and construction preparation simultaneously, so as to ensure the project commencement on schedule.

The WEEG will well accomplish the mission of building China-Laos railway in a safe, high-quality and efficient manner and bring benefits to the two peoples, WEEG project manager Chen Qingfeng told Xinhua Sunday at the launching ceremony held at a railway construction site in Vientiane Province, some 50 km north of capital Vientiane.

The China-Laos Railway is a strategic docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.

The 414.332-km railway, with 198-km tunnels and 62-km bridges, will run from Boten border gate in northern Laos, bordering China, to Vientiane with an operating speed of 160 km per hour.

The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of Chinese management and technical standards.

The project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and opened to traffic in December 2021.