A Japanese-Vietnamese consortium has been chosen to provide consultancy services for Hanoi’s first elevated railway project.

The JKT consortium, made up of three local and five Japanese firms, signed a VND840 billion (US$47.46 million) contract with Vietnam’s Railway Project Management Unit to advise on the first phase of the Yen Vien – Ngoc Hoi Project for 74 months.

Under the contract, JKT would provide assistance on technical design, project management, site clearance and training.

Tran Van Luc, director of the Railway Project Management Unit, said the 28-kilometer railway would be built with VND611 billion ($34.3 million) in aid from Japan.

In the first phase of the project, a 15.36-kilometer section linking the Gia Lam and Giap Bat areas and a major terminal will be built with an investment capital of VND19.5 trillion ($1.1 billion).

The Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi line is one of the five public transport projects in a plan to develop the capital’s infrastructure and ease congestion in Hanoi by 2020. The plan was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last year, according to local newswire VnExpress.