Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has announced that work will begin before 2030 on a railway through the Mekong Delta provinces south of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

The 175km line will connect six provinces in the southern region, which grows about 90% of Vietnam’s rice exports.

The first phase will begin in the province of Binh Duong, just north of HCMC, and will end in Can Tho City in the centre of the delta provinces. It will pass through HCMC, Long An, Tien Giang and Vinh Long before reaching Can Tho.

It will be single-tracked and electrified, and 44% of its length will be built on embankments and the remainder over bridges and viaducts.

The amount of civil engineering needed has pushed its cost estimate to about $7.2bn. This includes the cost of resettling farmers with fields on the route of the line.

In the $2.7bn second phase, the line will be upgraded to double-track, giving a total project cost of almost $10bn, to be met from public funds.

The planned route will have 19 stations, three depots, four maintenance and inspection stations and three “infrastructure maintenance facilities”.

The projected timeline begins with investment approval in 2025 followed by groundbreaking before 2030. Operations are expected to commence in 2035, with full completion of the second phase to be achieved after 2055.