Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has urged relevant ministries to allocate sufficient investment capital for the appraisal of the pre-feasibility study report of the North - South high-speed railway project.

In the document sent by the Government Office on Monday, Dung assigned the Ministry of Transport to urgently coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to provide funding for the assessment of the study as prescribed.

He also required the State Council for the appraisal of the North-South high-speed ​railway project to actively evaluate the pre-feasibility study of the project in accordance with the law.

The Ministry of Transport’s Party Civil Affairs Committee would be in charge of setting a timeline for the submission of a plan on construction of the project to the Politburo, which should be reported to the Prime Minister before June 10.

The North-South high-speed railway project is one of the nation’s most important projects, which was decided by the National Assembly regarding the investment policy and approved by the PM regarding the investment grant.

Accordingly, the total length of the railway is about 1,560 km, running along the North-South corridor, going through 20 localities, connecting Ha Noi and HCM City.

Of the total, the 14-km section in Ha Noi shares the infrastructure with the Ha Noi urban railway No.1 from Ha Noi Station to Ngoc Hoi Station, and the remainder connects Ngoc Hoi Station to Thu Thiem Station with 27 stations, five depots, and 42 infrastructure maintenance facilities.

It is designed for passenger trains to run with a maximum speed of 350kph.

The first phase of the project has a total investment of VND561.6 trillion (US$24.1 billion), while the second costs VND772.6 trillion ($33.2 billion).

The whole project is scheduled to be completed in 2050. — VNS