Vietnam sets up taskforce to oversee major railroad projects

The Vietnamese government has established an interdisciplinary steering committee to oversee implementation of the mega North-South high-speed railway project and other vital rail routes.

The task force, established by a decision signed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha. The ministers of transport, planning and investment, finance, and head of the Government Office will serve as Ha’s deputies.

Members of the steering committee will include representatives of government agencies, institutions, experts, scientists and consultants.

The taskforce will advise the prime minister on policies and mechanisms to raise funds and coordinate between government agencies in implementing critical railway projects nationwide, excluding urban railway routes in major cities.

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang had proposed in June the establishment of such a taskforce, given the huge scale and technical-technological complexity of the transnational express railway.

In February 2019, the transport ministry submitted to the government a pre-feasibility report on a Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City high-speed railway project that would carry passengers through 20 stops in as many provinces at a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour. It would run on double-lane, 1.435-meter rails. The project has an estimated cost of $64 billion.

However, a consulting consortium proposed late in 2022 a mixed-use railway route for passenger and freight transportation that would run at 225 and 160 km/h, respectively. The proposed cost was lower at $61 billion.

Prof. Nguyen Mai, chairman of Vietnam's Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE), told The Investor in August that the project was first tabled in 2007. He said the operating speed of 320 km/h had been proposed considering that several countries were already testing high-speed train networks with speeds of up to 600 km/h.

Japanese trains were proposed for the project because Japan already had a system of new generation high-speed railway routes and stood ready to support Vietnam in constructing the construction process, he added.

During PM Chinh’s working visit to China last month, two Chinese corporations also expressed their interest in joining railway projects in Vietnam.