Vietnam to Finish Feasible Study on $55.8B Railway Project This Year
Vietnam will finish a feasibility study on building $55.8-billion high-speed North-South railway project to submit prime minister for approval this year, Pham Cong Thinh, general director of Vietnam Railway Corp (VRC) said.
The Ministry of Transport assigned the VRC to receive technical assistances from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to make a feasibility study for sections of Hanoi-Vinh and HCM City-Nha Trang, Thinh added.
The JICA and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on feasibility study for two sections and the JICA is proposing the Japanese government to finance $2 million for the study.
Earlier in June 2010, Vietnamese lawmakers rejected a feasibility study on the express railway construction, saying that this study was unpersuasive.
Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a National Assembly delegate from the northern province of Lang Son, said “I was totally surprised at resuming the railway study. It is not right time to carry out the project when we have to depend much on foreign loans and technology”.
Many local scientists and experts said that Vietnam will have to spend over $2 billion of official development assistance (ODA) on the project annually, while the possibility of paying the debt is unclear. (Youth)
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