More clarity on investment plan for billion-dollar railway line Ho Chi Minh City

Route of the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho Railway Investment Project

Build single track first

Exactly one month after being assigned by the Ministry of Construction to prepare the Pre-Feasibility Study Report for the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho Railway Investment Project, the My Thuan Project Management Board has had its first report on the implementation plan for the railway infrastructure project connecting the Southern economic locomotive with the Mekong Delta.

Mr. Tran Van Thi, Director of My Thuan Project Management Board, said that after receiving the research results from the Railway Project Management Board, on June 4, 2025, this unit held a meeting to listen to the consulting consortium of Southern Transport Design Consulting Joint Stock Company (TEDI South) - Transport Construction Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company (TRICC) - Transport Design Consulting Corporation - JSC (TEDI) report on the results of the pre-feasibility study of the Project.

At this meeting, the My Thuan Project Management Board directed the Consulting Joint Venture to urgently complete the Pre-Feasibility Study Report and submit the final report of the Project to the Ministry of Construction in mid-July 2025. “The My Thuan Project Management Board and the Consulting Joint Venture are urgently working to reach an agreement with relevant units and provinces on road and railway planning; station location, connection method and land use plan according to TOD; propose a highly feasible financial plan…”, said the leader of the My Thuan Project Management Board.

According to preliminary research results, the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho Railway Investment Project has a length of 175.2 km; the starting point is at An Binh station in Di An city, Binh Duong province; the ending point is at Can Tho station in Phu Thu ward, Cai Rang district, Can Tho city. The project has an investment scale in the completion phase according to the double-track standard of 1,435 mm gauge, electrification.

In particular, in phase I, the project will build a single-track route from An Binh to Can Tho, with a route length of 175.2 km; in phase II, the entire route will be upgraded to a double-track route. The route will have 12 stations and 4 potential passenger stations; 3 depots (An Binh, Tan Kien, Can Tho); 4 vehicle maintenance and inspection stations (Thanh Duc, Tam Hiep, Cai Lay, Binh Minh), 3 infrastructure maintenance stations; 3 large river crossing locations (Sai Gon, Vam Co Dong, Vam Co Tay) and 2 particularly large river crossing locations (Tien River and Hau River).

The project is expected to operate the route for passenger and cargo transport with an expected throughput capacity of 26 million tons of cargo/year and 18 million passengers/year by 2055. It is estimated that the total land use demand of the entire project is about 801.5 hectares, of which residential land is 193.88 hectares; agricultural land is about 479.1 hectares (rice land area is about 430.19 hectares, other agricultural land is 48.92 hectares); other land (land for traffic works, public land...) is about 128.52 hectares.

Open to private investment

According to the latest proposal of the Consulting Joint Venture, the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho railway line has a 76.6 km long section on the ground (accounting for 43.72%), the bridge section including the viaduct and the river bridge is 98.6 km long (accounting for 56.28%). With the above investment scale, the Project has a preliminary total investment (phase I) of about 173,643 billion VND, equivalent to 7.16 billion USD, of which the cost of compensation, support and resettlement according to the planning is about 45,675 billion VND (including the cost of volume contingency).

The consulting consortium estimates that the total investment (phase II) is about 64,973 billion VND, equivalent to about 2.7 billion USD (excluding financial costs for the Project). In total, the preliminary total investment of the Project is about 238,616 billion VND, equivalent to 9.84 billion USD.

To ensure synchronization, the consulting consortium proposed to invest in infrastructure and vehicles in the initial exploitation phase in the form of public investment; after putting into operation, it will call on enterprises to invest in vehicles, operate transportation businesses and pay infrastructure rental fees to the State.

The My Thuan Project Management Board strives to start construction of Phase I of the Project before 2030, put it into operation from 2035; deploy and put into operation Phase II in 2055. To achieve this goal, the Project needs to be approved by the National Assembly in the fourth quarter of 2026. “This progress depends on the ability to allocate resources. If appropriate and advanced implementation solutions are applied, it will help speed up the progress and put the Project into operation soon,” said the leader of the My Thuan Project Management Board.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/ro-them-phuong-an-dau-tu-tuyen-duong-sat-ty-do-tphcm---can-tho-d310068.html