Vietnam is planning to pour 31 billion U.S. dollars into constructing four high-speed rail routes in the 2010-2015 period, the country's sole railway operator told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"We have reported to the National Assembly (the country's highest legislative body) about our plan on building the four routes of Hanoi-Hai Phong, Hanoi-Vinh, Ho Chi Minh City-Vung Tau, and Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang. The railways will allow trains to run at a maximum speed of 300 km," said the office secretariat of the Vietnam Railways Corporation.

The planned routes with a total length of some 900 km, linking either Hanoi capital or southern Ho Chi Minh City with the major cities in the northern, central and southern regions, will have the international-standard width of 1.435 m, instead of one meter like most of Vietnam's existing railways.

"In my opinion, the project seems rather unfeasible, since 31 billion dollars is a huge sum of money. Meanwhile, investment in railways usually comes from internal sources," a senior official of the state-owned corporation said, declining to be named.

Under a railway development plan approved by the government, Vietnam's railway sector is to meet 25-30 percent of cargo transport demand, and 20-25 percent of passenger transport demand in the country in 2020. The current respective figures are 4 percent and 9 percent, the official said.

The sector transported over 8.7 million tons of cargoes and nearly 12.8 million passengers in 2005. Meanwhile, its total revenues rose 3.1 percent to over 4,730 billion VND (nearly 297.5 million dollars).

Source: Xinhua