 (Graphic photo: Ministry of Transportation) |
In September 2024, the Party Central Committee agreed on an investment policy for the project and marked it for prioritized investment and early implementation. The National Assembly's Economic Committee is examining the investment policy dossier before reporting to the 8th session of the Assembly.
To prepare for the project, the Ministry of Transport and relevant units have studied models from 22 countries and territories and organized study tours to six countries. The Ministry has proposed a double-track railway with a gauge of 1.435mm and a designed speed of 350 km per hour.
Tran Thien Canh, Director of the Vietnam Railway Authority, said: “The high-speed railway will serve transportation demand on the North-South axis. Calculations show that if four modes of transportation – land, air, sea, and river – are developed as planned, the demand for rail passenger transport will be 120 million passengers a year.”
Once completed, the high-speed railway is expected to change the development of many localities. The 20 provinces and cities that the railway will traverse have a large, combined population and are regional development centers. The high-speed railway will redistribute production resources, population, and labor and create conditions for equitable development.
Economist Professor Dr. Hoang Van Cuong said: “The high-speed railway will benefit the economy, especially in logistics. A stronger logistics system will reduce costs, increase economic efficiency, increase added values, and create opportunities for new development centers. The GDP will increase if we invest heavily. The railway system will change the appearance, development space, and development conditions for the regions along its route.”
The North-South high-speed railway project will receive an estimated investment of more than 67 billion USD from the state budget’s medium-term public investment plan. The National Assembly is expected to approve the project’s investment policy this month and construction is scheduled to begin at the end of 2027 and be completed by 2035.