Vietnam’s railway sector is expected to inject VND7,072 billion ($444.7 million) to construct a new Sai Gon-My Tho railway with 87km in total length and 1m in width linking the country’s largest economic hub to adjacent southern Mekong provinces, state media reported.
The section is part of the Sai Gon-My Tho-Can Tho route, Nguyen Kim Lang, Vice General Director of the Traffic Designing Consultant Company said. Under the master plan of the country’s railway development plan from now till 2020, it will facilitate the transport of goods with high productivity.
The project is expected to kick off in 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2015. It will replace the old one, which was built in 1881.
However, answering the question raised by the public as to why the railway section has the width of 1 meter, Deputy Head of the Department of Planning and Investment under the Vietnam Railway Corp said that the project, once in place, will be connected to the existing 1m north-south rail route that will be later translated into part of the Trans-Asian Railway.
In a related development, Vietnam Railway Corp (VRC) is laying out its ambitious plans to construct a second north-south express railway route with a width of 1.435-m at an estimated cost of $32 billion, equal to roughly a half of the country’s current GDP, in the next decade to replace the existing 1-m one.
In a recent report submitted to the Transport Ministry, VRC general director Nguyen Huu Bang said that Vietnam should have the strategic rail line by 2010 that will help the travel time between the country’s largest economic hubs go down to 10 hours from the 30 hours it now takes and give a fresh incentive to boost the country’s socioeconomic growth.
Recently, VRC general director revealed that VRC has just inked a deal with Cambodia to build 100 compartments comprising 60 container cars and 40 petroleum tankers
Vietnam now has 2,600 km in total, most of which are now degrading and should be improved Liberated Saigon, Vietnam Financial Times
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