As one of the key infrastructure projects being actively promoted, the North-South high-speed railway project is strategic, placed in the context of the country's transformation towards a new era, the era of national growth, in the call of General Secretary To Lam.
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| North-South high-speed railway line, Al drawing. (Source: chinhphu.vn) |
The super project has been approved by the Politburo and the Party Central Committee in terms of investment policy, and is currently awaiting consideration and approval by the National Assembly. According to the agenda, the National Assembly will vote to approve the Resolution on investment policy for the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis on November 30, before the closing of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly.
In fact, high-speed rail has become a “daily occurrence” in the world. Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed rail was built in 1964, France’s TGV in 1981, Germany’s ICE intercity express train system in 1991, China’s high-speed rail in operation since 2008… up to now, compared to other forms of transport, they have shown efficiency in terms of transport capacity, high efficiency, time saving, especially outstanding safety, including environmental safety.
Previously, on November 13, at the first session of the 8th Session, the National Assembly discussed the project investment policy in the hall with 117 opinions expressed. The summary report of the National Assembly Secretary General said that there were 101 opinions agreeing with the necessity of investing in the North-South high-speed railway project; the investment in the project is assessed to play an important role in realizing the Party's guidelines and orientations, the State's policies, creating a breakthrough in the development and modernization of transport infrastructure.
Currently, the proposed investment project has a length of 1,541km, passing through 20 provinces and cities, with a double-track scale of 1,435mm, electrified, with a design speed of 350km/h, arranging 23 passenger stations with an average distance of about 67km, five freight stations connected to freight hubs. Preliminary determination of the total investment of the project is about 67.34 billion USD.
At the recent "High-speed railway - opportunities and challenges" seminar, industry experts analyzed that high-speed railway transport, when formed, will play an important role, synchronously connecting five main modes of transport: road, rail, sea, air, inland waterway, along the North-South axis. Thus, the birth of the North-South high-speed railway optimizes the transportation system, reduces logistics costs, and enhances the competitiveness of the economy. A flexible, fast, cost-saving mode of transport will contribute significantly to socio-economic development.
Notably, according to initial calculations, the North-South high-speed railway will reduce the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to 5.5 hours, six times faster than the regular train. The ticket price for the entire route is expected to be 75% of the average airfare from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. The highest ticket price is 6.9 million VND, the lowest is 1.7 million VND.
These are convincing figures for a highly social project, with enough competitiveness in all aspects. We believe in the success of the project, meeting the needs of freight and passenger transport businesses on the North-South route by 2050, which is more than 18.2 million tons/year and 122.7 million passengers, according to the forecast of Vietnam Railways Corporation.
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