Construction has started on a highway bridge in the China-Vietnam border area, a local official in southwestern China's Yunnan Province said.

The bridge links Lao Cai, a northern province of Vietnam, and Hekou, a southern county of the Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Honghe, Yunnan. It is 295 meters long, with exactly half of it in China.

The whole project, jointly built by Lao Cai and Yunnan, is expected to cost around 60 million yuan (US$7.4 million) and take a year and a half to complete, according to the official with Hekou County.

In 2005, over 2.2 million tons of goods and 1.4 million passengers went through the international border gate of Lao Cai-Hekou, overloading the two existing bridges.

On Feb.16 this year, transport ministries of China and Vietnam signed an agreement on building the bridge to facilitate goods and passenger transportation between the two countries.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2006)