The project will be carried out from April 2020 and completed by 2021.

The railway from Ha Noi station to Ho Chi Minh City station is 1726 kilometers. They daily take about 32 to 35 hours (from Ha Noi to Ho Chi Minh City) depending on different trains.

Earlier in July 2018, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly has approved a VND15 trillion (US$645 million) budget for four railway upgrading and 10 road projects.

Specifically, a total of VND7 trillion (US$300 million) will be allocated to four railway upgrading projects.

The number of train passengers decreased by 15% from 11.2 million in 2010 to 9.5 million in 2017, according to Nguyen Thi Luyen, head of the Economic Institutional Department under the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

Total freight carriage also dropped 29 percent from 7.8 million tons to 5.5 million tons in the same period, Luyen added.

In recent years, investment in railways accounts for just 2-3% of the transportation sector's total budget. VGP