Laos has started building a railway station in Vientiane to service rail links with China slated to being operating next year.

Laos and China hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the project in the Lao capital on Friday, the Vientiane Times reported.

The station is a main hub for the rail project between China and Laos expected to be operational on Dec 2 next year. It will also serve as a rail link with Thailand, as the country is constructing a high-speed rail line in its own joint project with China.

Dec 2 is National Day in Laos, commemorating the seizure of power by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 1975.

“Vientiane will be the main passenger station of the Laos-China railway, covering a 150-hectare site. The station will link to the freight station at Thanalaeng and other rail lines in the future,” the newspaper quoted Lao director of the railway project Chantoula Phanalasy as saying.

The 414 kilometre-long rail construction project was established with a US$6 billion budget in 2016. It will carry trains to Vientiane from the Lao-Chinese border at a maximum speed of 160 kilometres per hour.