Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Enhancing safety and capacity are the top priorities forthe railway sector as it receives a much-needed package of 7 trillion VND(around 308 million USD) from the State budget.

Earlierin August, the National Assembly Standing Committee approved the amount, whichis nearly half of the Government’s contingency fund of 15 trillion VND for publicinvestment in the 2016-2020 period.

Thepackage is nowhere near the estimates of funds needed to ensure a robustrevival of the flagging sector, given that the money will be used only for fourcritical projects along the Hanoi – HoChi Minh City route.

Of thesum, 1.6 trillion VND (70.5 million USD) was allocated for the renovation andupgrading of infrastructure on the Hanoi-Vinh route in the north and 1.8trillion VND (79.3 million USD) for the Nha Trang-HCM City route in the south.The cost of upgrading degraded tunnels and important infrastructure along theVinh-Nha Trang route, and upgrading degraded tunnels and bridge pillars of theHanoi-HCM City route will reach 1.8 trillion VND each.

The State-controlledVietnam Railway Corporation (VNR) said that each year, it received only about 2trillion VND (88 million USD), or 30 percent of what it needs to carry outupkeep on 3,150km of rail lines, the majority of which are weary with age andhundreds of kilometers. Most have not enjoyed a single repair since the Frenchcolonial era.

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Theuneven investment throughout the cross-country rail line has reduced theoverall speed of running trains to 60km/h, while the newly invested ones canreach speeds of up to 90km/h.

“Thelist of repair jobs just keeps getting longer, while the infrastructure keepsdegrading, leading to safety risks. We had a really tough time choosing themost pressing projects to work on,” said Vu Anh Minh, Chairman of VNR.

Withthe freshly approved budget, the railway sector expects to raise the routecapacity, ensure traffic safety, enhance support infrastructure, reduce shakingon trains and improve services.

“Speedimprovement is not our primary concern, but it could be improved on certainroutes with upgrades. If we were to spend 10 trillion VND to revamp entiredepot-to-depot sections of the four critical routes, then the speed gains wouldonly save one hour of travelling – which is really not worth the amount ofinvestment it would require,” Minh said.

“That’swhy, we concentrate on the route capacity, or the number of trains passing,from 18 trains to 23-25 trains in one day,” he added.

TheVNR leader also expressed concern over the need to carry out maintenance andensure normal operation of trains on the routes at the same time.

“Ifthings go according to plan, we could finish all four projects by the middle of2021,” Minh said.

The 7trillion VND package is part of the total budget of 110 trillion VND (4.84billion USD) reserved for the development of existing rail lines until 2030(excluding the planned high-speed railway). The funds were set out by theGovernment in 2014 but State budget constraints have delayed the final approvalup until now.-VNS/VNA