Regarding urban railway development, the government reported that Hanoi would build 10 urban railway routes with total length of 410 kilometers, consider building routes connecting with satellite cities, and plan to set up a number of monorail lines to support the urban railway system.

Meanwhile, HCM City will build eight radial and belt routes connecting the main centers of the city with a length of about 173 kilometers, and three tramlines or monorails.

The government has also set directions for planning urban railway routes for some provinces, including Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Binh Huong and Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

However, the urban railway projects in Hanoi and HCM City have been going slowly and are behind schedule. To date, only 13 kilometers of railway, have been put into operation, or just 10.4 percent of the total length of network initially to be built prior to 2020.

The government has asked Hanoi and HCM City authorities to speed up the implementation of projects.

To date, Hanoi only has one route in use – Cat Linh - Ha Dong. After 22 months of operation, 16 million passengers have been served, which means 30,000 passengers per day.

However, urban railways still cannot satisfy 15-20 percent of the passenger public transport demand in Hanoi and HCM City as initially planned.

Meanwhile, preparations for investment and implementation of urban railway projects in Hanoi and HCM City have been going very slowly, while the required investment capital of the projects has been raised.

Regarding investment capital allocation, the government reported that VND71.5 trillion has been allocated to projects in Hanoi and HCM City by 2023, including VND39.5 trillion for four projects in Hanoi and VND32 trillion for two projects in HCM City.

2050 is deadline for North-South Expressway

The government emphasized that it has instructed to implement large important projects, including the North-South Expressway.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) sent its staff to four countries with developed high-speed railway networks (China, Spain, Japan and Germany) to learn from them and complete a report on project implementation to be submitted to the government and the Politburo.

The government hopes that the investment in the project will be determined by 2025.

The government has decided that the seven existing railways will be upgraded by 2030, and the execution of two priority sections of the North-South Expressway (Hanoi - Vinh and Nha Trang - HCM City) will be deployed.

Thu Hang