Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi has just sent a document to the Ministry of Transport (MOT) to give comments on the project to invest in a high-speed railway on the North-South axis.
Accordingly, the Minister of Construction, a member of the steering committee for construction and implementation of the project, agreed to invest in a high-speed railway on the North-South axis according to scenario 3.
According to this scenario, the North-South railway will have a double-track design, 1,435 mm gauge, 22.5 tons/axle load, passenger train operation and reserve for freight transport when needed, design speed 350 km/h.
Total project investment capital under scenario 3 is about 68.98 billion USD. In case of immediate investment in infrastructure, equipment, and vehicles to serve the exploitation of cargo trains running North - South, the project investment capital is about 71.69 billion USD.
The Ministry of Construction has agreed on a plan to build a North-South high-speed railway according to scenario 3, with a double track, 1,435 mm gauge, speed of 350 km/h, and an investment capital of more than 70 billion USD. (Illustration photo: VOV.VN)
With this scenario, the North-South high-speed railway line will be completely renovated with 60% bridges, 10% tunnels, and 30% running on the ground. The entire line will have 23 passenger stations, 5 assembly, repair, and maintenance areas, 40 infrastructure maintenance facilities, 5 freight stations, 4 depots, and 28 km of connecting stations to operate freight trains when demand for goods exceeds operating capacity.
The project requires the purchase of 74 distributed power trains, with 1,184 carriages, with a train operating capacity of 175 pairs of trains/day and night (high-speed railway 150 pairs of trains, existing railway 25 pairs of trains), transporting about 133.5 million passengers/year and 20 million tons of goods/year.
According to the Ministry of Construction, the project currently does not clearly show the upgrading and modernization of the North-South railway line with a specific gauge.
"With the integration trend, ensuring international transport requirements in the future operation process, the Ministry of Transport needs to study, in the direction of upgrading and modernizing the North-South railway line by replacing the entire existing 1,000mm gauge with the standard 1,435mm gauge during the implementation process, ensuring proper implementation of the direction in Conclusion No. 49-KL/TW dated February 28, 2023: "High-speed railway on the North-South axis is the "backbone" axis, effectively exploiting existing railway lines, effectively connecting with urban railway lines, major economic centers, domestic transport hubs (seaports, airports, international border gates) and international transport", the Ministry of Construction emphasized.
The Ministry of Construction added that the high-speed railway on the North-South axis is 1,545km long, passing through 20 provinces and centrally-run cities. Currently, the provinces and cities are in the process of establishing and approving regional planning, provincial planning and construction planning projects. At the same time, in the context of increasing urbanization, situations may arise that change the design direction of the high-speed railway on the North-South axis, leading to the need to adjust the volume of construction, leading to changes in the total investment of the project.
" Therefore, the Ministry of Transport needs to closely coordinate with localities where the railway passes through to ensure that the results of the recruitment agreement are maintained as shown in the project," the Ministry of Construction noted.
The high-speed railway project on the North-South axis has a very large total investment: Scenario 1 (estimated at about 67.32 billion USD); Scenario 2 (estimated at about 72.02 billion USD); Scenario 3 (estimated at about 71.60 billion USD).
Thanh Lam
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