HÀ NỘI — The two sections of the North-South high speed railway will be built first and expected to be up and running in 2032.

The first section runs from Hà Nội to Vinh City and the second runs from Nha Trang to HCM City. The total length of the two is about 600km, the online newspaper Zing reported.

The information was released at a meeting held on Monday afternoon, chaired by Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyễn Ngọc Đông in Hà Nội, to announce the final pre-feasibility report of the north-south high speed railway.

The north-south high speed railway, connecting Hà Nội to HCM City, stretching more than 20 provinces and cities with a total length of 1,545km, is worth US$58 billion. It was divided into three sections for separate investment.

The report would be submitted to the National Assembly in October 2019. If approved, land clearance of the project will be taken between 2020 and 2025, he said.

Then two sections would be constructed and put into operation in 2032. The last section, linking Vinh City to Nha Trang City, would be built as of 2035 and put into operation in 2050, he said.

The project would be invested through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, the State investment capital would account for 80 per cent and the private sector’s investment capital would make up 20 per cent, he added.

Đông also said PPP model was believed to be the best way to build the railway because we could not expect private enterprises alone to invest in railway infrastructure.

As calculated, it was hard for the private enterprises to recover their capital investment due to excessive depreciation, he said.

"It actually needs Government’s investment capital," he said.

"In other countries, such as France and China, high-speed railway projects are mainly invested by the Government."

According to Đông the first station of the north-south high speed railway is Hà Nội Station, the last station is Thủ Thiêm Station.

The high-speed train will share the station with trains of urban railway line 1 in Hà Nội. In case of the urban railway line 1 is overloaded. The north-south high speed railway’s train will depart or stop at Ngọc Hồi Station.

As planned, the trains are run by electric, using Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) technology.

There will be 24 main stations, five depots, and 42 infrastructure maintenance facilities in the north-south high speed railway.

After the north-south high speed railway is finished, it demands 14,000 staff to operate, exploit and maintain it. — VNS