| Road toll to fall thanks to railway | |
Vietnam will save about 3,000 lives per year by the time the high-speed railway network is up and running. That was the message delivered by the Japan Overseas Rolling Stock Association (JORSA) at a meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday (15 Sep 2009). The high-speed railway will cut the annual road toll in Vietnam by 26 percent, which now stands at a sky-high 1,000 people a month, according to JORSA.
The government will submit a final plan for the network to the National Assembly in May next year. Work on the USD38 billion railway is expected to begin shortly after winning NA approval. The government has already invited Japanese railway companies to building the network under the build-operate-transfer method.
The 1,570km trans-Viet rail route will connect Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Trains will travel at an average speed of 300kmh, on gauge rails of 1,435mm – the most advanced in the world. Vietnam currently uses 1,000mm rail gauges.
Japan, South Korea, World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank will provide most of the loans needed for the railway. | |
| KDT |
