A temporary halt has been put on the “New Railway” project to construct a 217.9 km rail line connecting Ukhaa-Khudag in Tsogttsetsii sum to Gashuun-Sukhair border port in Khanbogd sum in Umnugovi province. The execute operator of the project is “Mongolian Railway”, a Mongolian state owned shareholding company.

Currently “Samsung C&T” and another 13 national construction companies were working on the project for the “New railway”.

The current progress of earthwork preparations done for the railway line  is at 70 percent.
A local website has reported that the Local administration has forced “Samsung C&T” to halt construction and have sealed the earth moving equipment. The Deputy Local Governor of Khanbogd sum, D.Munkh-Erdene, spoke on the phone and said that “Samsung C&T” has a debt of one billion MNT for the use of gravel from the sum according to the Common Mineral law Mongolia.

“The local economy is in difficulty as the budget is too low. Since last year the debt of one billion MNT has been created. A joint task force from the Local Governor`s Office and environment specialists decided to halt the construction by sealing the company`s equipments last week.”

The “Mongolian Railway” Mongolian state owned shareholding company has not commented on the report.