South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) will provide US$1.4 million to review the pre-feasibility study report for the $3.4-billion Thu Thiem-Long Thanh railway project in southern Vietnam.

The funding is intended to ensure the quality and accuracy of the report.

The Ministry of Transport has recently issued a decision approving the review of the pre-feasibility study report for the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh railway project, which is aimed at connecting the under-construction Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province with Ho Chi Minh City.

The expenditure for the review is estimated at VND34.7 billion ($1.4 million) and will be funded by EDCF in the form of non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) through the Export-Import Bank of Korea, according to the decision.

The review, which will kick off this year and be completed in 2025, will be conducted by a South Korean consulting unit whose name has yet to be announced.

South Korean consultants will examine, appraise, and make recommendations for the feasibility study report, which was prepared by their Vietnamese counterparts, to ensure the highest quality of the document.

Based on the results of the review, Vietnamese consulting consortium TEDI-TEDIS will revise and perfect their report before submitting it to relevant agencies for approval.

According to the report, the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway is nearly 42 kilometers long, including 11.75 kilometers in Ho Chi Minh City and 30.08 kilometers in Dong Nai.

The route will have elevated, underground, and ground-level sections, accounting for about 66 percent, 33 percent, and one percent of the total length, respectively.

There will be 20 stations along the route, including 16 elevated stations and four underground stations.

The railway route is designed to start at Thu Thiem Station in Thu Duc City – a district-level administrative unit of Ho Chi Minh City – and end at Long Thanh International Airport.

The large-scale project is estimated to cost more than VND84.7 trillion ($3.4 billion), of which $221.8 million will be spent on site clearance and compensation.

Of the total cost, VND58.6 trillion ($2.36 billion) will be covered by the state budget and the rest will be funded by ODA loans, according to TEDI-TEDIS’s proposal.

After completing the site clearance, the construction of the railway will be conducted from the last quarter of 2026 until 2029, and the route is expected to be put into commercial operation in 2030, according to the project schedule.

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