The Peruvian government has finalized a major infrastructure cooperation and officially awarded a railway construction contract worth 420 million US dollars to China Electric Power Construction Group. This 120 kilometer long new freight mainline will cross the rugged Andes Mountains and closely connect the port city of Qiankai on the Pacific coast with the mining and industrial areas in the central highlands of Peru.

According to the EPC contract, PowerChina will be fully responsible for the detailed design and construction of this sky road. Due to the need to extend inland from Qiankai and pass through the geologically complex Andes mountainous area, the project will involve extensive tunnel excavation, elevated bridge construction, and earthwork operations to avoid steep slopes. The project is scheduled to last for 36 months and is expected to be completed and open to traffic in 2028. Keywords: international news, infrastructure projects, railways

This railway can be regarded as a major artery for Peru's mineral exports. At present, road transportation from the central highlands to the coast often takes over 18 hours, but the new railway will significantly reduce this time to around 5 hours. Its construction not only means a significant reduction in logistics costs and an improvement in transportation reliability, but also will break the bottleneck of long-distance road transportation and open up an efficient channel for the export of copper and other bulk commodities. It is worth noting that this contract only covers the construction phase, and future long-term operations will be arranged separately.Editor/Cheng Liting