"High-speed Rail Project Will Force Thousands of Lao Families to Relocate", 22 November 2017

More than 4,400 Lao families are being forced to relocate to make way for the U.S. $6 billion Lao-Chinese high-speed railway…as part of a longer rail project that will link China to mainland Southeast Asia….

…4,411 families must be relocated along the planned 420-kilometer (261-mile) route through Laos, according to Rattanamany Khounnivong, deputy minister at the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport….

The ministry is working with the provincial task force committees to finalize compensation schemes for those who are forced to relocate, Rattanamany said.

Project owners are required to guarantee that living conditions for those displaced will be as good as, or better than, they were before the project was started.

…Some villagers who have been forced to leave their homes say they are still waiting for compensation from the government.

Political and financial setbacks have delayed the Lao-China stretch of the railway. The original construction plan called for work to begin in 2011 and be completed in 2015, but the plans now call for the railway to be completed in 2021.