HCMC firm wants to build $10B high-speed rail to Can Tho

In a proposal sent to the government, the HCMC-based multi-sector corporation said it wants to implement the project under the public-private partnership format.

The railway would use double rails of 1.435 mm gauge, the standard for high-speed rails. It will run 174 km long through HCMC, Binh Duong, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Can Tho.

The corporation has yet to mention the designed speeds of trains on the railway.

For the investment fund, it plans to collaborate with China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and China Power Engineering Consulting Group (CPECC) to form a joint venture to borrow from world’s leading financial institutions.

The joint-venture will cover 85% of the cost of the project and the rest will come from Vietnam’s state fund.

CT Group also proposed building 12 urban areas along the railway under the transit-oriented development (TOD) model, which maximizes the residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport, to boost the development of localities where the railway runs through.

If approved, the company promises to finish the pre-feasibility report within the first half of this year and complete the entire project before 2032.

It predicts that the railway will serve 16.4 million passengers and 19.1 million tons of cargo each year by 2035 and 42 million passengers and 81 million tons of cargo by 2050.

CT Group said it has studied this project in a decade and that the joint-venture of CPECC and CRBC have had experiences in building the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train in Indonesia.

The government has approved in principle to study a high-speed railway to connect the two biggest cities of southern Vietnam, HCMC and Can Tho, since 2013, but a final plan has yet been reached.

Experts say the route will link the economic zones of southern Vietnam and the Mekong Delta, while also meeting cargo and passenger transportation needs and reducing traffic congestion.

Vietnam currently has over 3,000 kilometers of railway tracks, none of them high-speed. Railway accounts for just 1.9% of the transportation sector in the country, according to the Vietnam Railway Authority.

A map of the travel distance between HCMC and Can Tho. Photo by GoogleMaps