A landslide inside Bai Gio Tunnel in Khanh Hoa Province, south-central Vietnam has disrupted travel on a North-South railway section through the province and neighboring Phu Yen Province since Friday afternoon.

According to Vietnam Railways, the incident happened during the tunnel’s upgrade.

As planned, the railway section between Hao Son Station in Phu Yen Province and Dai Lanh Station in Khanh Hoa Province would have been closed between 9:30 am and 1:30 pm on Friday for the upgrade of Bai Gio Tunnel.

However, at 1:10 pm on Friday, a contractor of the tunnel upgrade project reported the landslide, which caused 70 cubic meters of soil and rocks to fall from the tunnel ceiling onto the railway tracks, thus blocking the tunnel.

Contractors planned to handle the incident in 180 minutes. However, the job has taken more time as the tunnel is narrow and more landslides occurred.

Hoang Gia Khanh, general director of Vietnam Railways, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that no trains were passing through the tunnel because it was closed for upgrades.

The company is deploying resources and collaborating with relevant agencies to fix the tunnel as quickly as possible.

However, the job is complicated as soil and rocks continued to fall from the Bai Gio Tunnel ceiling while workers were removing the debris out of the passage, causing danger for them.

Khanh added that the railway sector is striving to devise solutions to ensure the safety of workers amidst potential risks of further collapse while simultaneously expediting the reopening of the tunnel.

However, the time to reopen the underground passage remains unknown, he noted.

Le Quang Vinh, director of Phu Khanh Railway Operation Branch, told Tuoi Tre that even after workers had cleared the rail tracks of soil and rocks, additional soil and rocks continued to fall, leading to the collapse of iron frames on the tunnel ceiling.

Vinh noted that new cracks had also emerged on the tunnel ceiling, necessitating reinforcement by the railway sector.

In the meantime, trains have stopped at Gia Station in Khanh Hoa and Tuy Hoa Station in Phu Yen.

Vietnam Railways has asked railway transport units to use buses to transport passengers between the two stations.

As of Saturday morning, the railway sector had facilitated the transportation of over 3,000 passengers from 12 trains operating on the North-South rail line via buses.

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