Rail plan to ease road haulage

Goods are loaded onto container trucks at Dinh Vu Port in the northern city of Hai Phong. The Viet Nam Railway Corporation will transport more containers by train to ease the burden on the country's overloaded road network. — VNA/VNS Photo Hong Ky

HA NOI — The Viet Nam Railway Corporation has set a target of transporting more than one hundred containers a day from northern Hai Phong port to outside provinces by rail by 2013.

The goal is included in the corporation's two-phase plan to carry containers by trains rather than trucks in a bid to ease the burden on roads, particularly national highways which have seriously deteriorated as a result of container transport.

In the first phase starting this year, trains will carry overweight containers and 40-ft containers from northern Hai Phong port to Ha Noi and the northern province of Lao Cai. The work is presently carried out by trucks running on Highways 5 and 70.

By carrying 100 40-ft containers (1 foot = 0.3m) and 35 20-ft containers a day, trains will lift the burden off 200 lorries a day on National Highway 5 and 20 trucks a day on Highway 70.

The cost of train transportation equals 60 per cent of that of road transportation.

In the second phase of the plan in 2014-15, the corporation will transport containers on other routes.

The plan would also contribute to traffic safety on the highways. — VNS