A train on the North-South route in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Tiến Lực

HCM CITY — The two proposed rail routes from HCM City to Cần Thơ City and Đồng Nai Province will be among the projects that get funding in 2021-30, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Included in the ministry’s draft master plan for railway development until 2030 that has been submitted to the Government for approval are a rail route from HCM City to Cần Thơ and a light rail line from Thủ Thiêm in the city to Long Thành in Đồng Nai, where an international airport is being built.

The former, a 174km double track, will be the standard 1,435mm gauge and cost VNĐ158 trillion (US$6.9 billion) to build.

It will link up with the North-South railway and is expected to run to the country’s southernmost province of Cà Mau in future.

By 2030 it will be given VNĐ123 billion ($5.4 million).

The Thủ Thiêm-Long Thành light rail will link Thủ Đức City with Long Thành International Airport.

It will be 38km long and again 1,435mm wide, and a double track, and cost VNĐ22 trillion ($964.5 million).

It will receive VNĐ6.6 trillion ($289 million) in 2021-30.

Three other new rail routes are also expected to be built by 2030 from HCM City to Tây Ninh, Bình Phước and Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu provinces.

They will all again link up with the national railway system as well as transnational routes. — VNS