In a document signed last Saturday, the city’s government said the first station of the rail line should be relocated to Tan Kien Station in Binh Chanh District from Thu Thiem Tunnel or Hoa Hung Station as suggested by the consultant.

The city found that if the main station was built in either location suggested by the consultant, the railway would run through the downtown area and many districts, and thus affect the general planning of HCM City previously approved by the prime minister.

Moreover, the railway direction as planned would go into the existing residential areas, requiring a huge site clearance workload. Meanwhile, the number of passengers with demand for travelling on from the northern region through HCM City to the Mekong Delta is small.

Passengers of the Hoa Hung rail line and the North-South express railway wanting to travel to the Mekong Delta can take other public transport means to Tan Kien Station. Therefore, developing a transport hub there is consistent with the general planning.

According to the Transport Engineering Design Incorporated South, the detailed planning of the HCM City-Can Tho rail line will be completed in 2013. After the feasibility study was done, the transport ministry chose a train speed of 200 kilometers per hour for transport of both passengers and goods, instead of 350 kilometers per hour for only passenger transport as planned before.

The project will be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) format. However, the transport ministry lately revealed South Korea intended to provide the project with ODA capital.

The HCM City-Can Tho rail line is aimed at relieving the load on National Highway 1A and shortening the time for travelling from HCM City to Can Tho City to one hour.

The rail line will run through five localities, namely HCM City, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Can Tho, stretching a total of 191 kilometers. Trains will run on a double-track line which is 1.43 meters wide, with the designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

The railway is planned to start at either Hoa Hung Station or Thu Thiem Tunnel in HCM City and end at Cai Rang Station in Can Tho. The total investment capital of the project is $9.63 billion.