More than US$9 billion is required to develop a 174-kilometer high-speed railway connecting Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, according to a report sent by the Railway Management Board to the Ministry of Transport.

The Railway Management Board has worked with six southern cities and provinces to which the railway will pass through—Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, and Can Tho—to make the pre-feasibility report for the project, as assigned by the Ministry of Transport.

They reached a consensus that the development of the express railway is vital to meeting the transport demand in the future, and ensuring the harmonious and sustainable traffic infrastructure development, urban restructuring, and population distribution along the Ho Chi Minh City-Can Tho corridor.

The Ho Chi Minh City-Can Tho express railway was designed to run from the An Binh Station in Binh Duong Province to the Can Tho Station in the namesake city.

The double-track railway will be used for both passenger and cargo trains. Along the route, there will be 15 stations and 11 depots.

The express railway will allow a maximum speed of 190 kilometers per hour for passenger trains and 120 kilometers per hour for cargo trains.

The project was planned to be conducted under the public-private partnership model.

The state will pay for site clearance, while the investor will mobilize capital for construction, operate the project on a trial basis, and transfer the project to the government under a build-transfer-lease contract.

In particular, the investor will develop the railway and lease it to an operator within 30 years.

The Railway Management Board said it had worked with localities on the direction of the railway and locations of stations.

However, the board has yet to receive the response of the People’s Committees of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Tien Giang to complete the pre-feasibility report for the project.

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