HANOI: Two high speed train routes in Vietnam, with trains travelling at speeds of up to 350 km per hour, are expected to be operational by 2030.
Vietnam's Ministry of Transport said the routes between Hanoi and Vinh and, Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, are in the draft plans for 2021-30.
Vinh is the capital of the north central Nghe An province and Nha Trang is a beach town in the south central province of Khanh Hoa.
Vn Express reports that according to the plan, if demand was still low, the two routes could have their start dates pushed back to 2032.
With a total track of 651 km, the project is expected to cost about VND561.6 trillion (US$24.3 billion) to build and put into operation.
Once they are up and running, work will start on other routes to complete the North-South or trans-Vietnam high speed railroad.
Rail projects in the country are expected to require funding of more than VND665 trillion (US$28.82 billion) by 2030, including upgrading works for existing routes.
In 2018, the Transport Ministry had revived the North-South high speed train routes after it was rejected by the National Assembly in 2010 due to its astronomical US$56 billion price tag then.
At that time, the amount was half of Vietnam's GDP.
However, experts have now again expressed concerns about raising such huge sums of money for the project.
The ministry has proposed a total of 1,600 km of 320 kph route at a cost of US$58.7 billion.
However, La Ngoc Khue, a former deputy transport minister, rejected the proposal for high speed trains, saying it would entail huge costs since Vietnam would need to import equipment and engineers.
He instead suggested a top speed of 140 kph to ensure economic and technical feasibility.
Dang Huy Dong, head of the Planning and Development Institute, said high speed rail fares should also be lower than airfares to be competitive.
He added that trains running at 150 kph or even 100 kph would be more efficient, and it would avoid the need for the government to underwrite any investors' losses.
Vietnam has over 3,000 km of track but none of it is high speed.
Last year, trains in Vietnam carried some eight million passengers, down 6.9 per cent from 2019 as the Covid-19 pandemic and flooding in the central region hit travel.