Proposed $320 million railway safety improvement project

The project aims to improve traffic safety at railway crossings, capacity and climate resilience of railway infrastructure and is expected to be funded by the World Bank.

Illustration photo.

Project Management Board 2 has just sent a document to the Ministry of Transport proposing a Railway Traffic Safety Improvement Project using WB loan capital.

The project aims to improve train safety, reduce annual maintenance and operating costs of existing level crossings after constructing grade-separated interchanges with roads; and eliminate road congestion when trains pass through.

Based on the initial research results, Project Management Board 2 proposed that the project will invest in grade-separated intersections for 21 intersections between 4 railway lines (including the following routes: Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City; Hanoi - Hai Phong; Yen Vien - Lao Cai and Hanoi - Dong Dang) with National Highways located in 13 provinces and cities across the country, stretching from North to South.

Specifically, for the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City railway line, it is expected to be deployed at 13 intersections (the type of intersection is a road crossing a railway), located in 8 provinces/cities including: Hanoi has 1 location, Thanh Hoa has 2 locations, Ha Tinh has 3 locations, Quang Binh has 2 locations, Phu Yen has 1 location, Khanh Hoa has 1 location, Binh Thuan has 1 location and Dong Nai has 2 locations,

For the Hanoi - Dong Dang railway line, it is expected to be deployed at 2 intersections (the type of intersection is a road crossing a railway), of which Bac Giang has 1 location and Lang Son has 1 location.

The Yen Vien - Lao Cai railway line is expected to have 5 intersections (the type of intersection is a road crossing a railway), of which Phu Tho has 3 locations and Lao Cai has 2 locations.

The Hanoi – Hai Phong railway has 1 intersection (the type of intersection is a road crossing over a railway), located in Hai Phong City. This location is on the branch line connecting to the Hanoi – Hai Phong railway from Vat Cach station to Vat Cach port.

Due to the characteristics of railways requiring small longitudinal slopes and some other special technical characteristics such as: stations, railway signal information systems, train safety, etc., the option of building a railway bridge over the road will be very costly and difficult to implement, so the main recommended option is to build a road bridge over the railway.

The total investment for the Railway Traffic Safety Improvement Project is expected to be approximately VND8,148.59 billion, equivalent to approximately USD320.04 million, of which the two largest expenditures are construction costs of VND4,575 billion and contingency of VND1,786 billion.

The project is proposed to use ODA loan capital from the World Bank worth about 5,716.54 billion VND, equivalent to about 224.52 million USD to be used for the following items: construction costs; design consulting costs; construction supervision consulting costs; contingency costs for the above items.

Counterpart capital worth about VND 2,432.05 billion (equivalent to about USD 95.52 million) is used for the following items: project management costs, VAT, design consultancy, supervision, other consultancy and other costs; site clearance costs; contingency costs for the above items.

If approved by the competent authority, the Project will be implemented within 5 years after the Funding Agreement comes into effect (expected from 2025 to 2030).

Source: https://baodautu.vn/de-xuat-du-an-cai-thien-an-toan-giao-thong-duong-sat-tri-gia-320-trieu-usd-d221507.html