The Vietnam Railways Corporation has proposed the Ministry of Transportbuild a separate track to the current railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi MinhCity, to meet increasing demand for transport.

In a proposal that was sent to the ministry, the corporation said the country's railway infrastructure was in poor condition.

Thecurrent North-South railway, with a width of 1 metre, runs a totallength of more than 1,720 kilometres. It was built after the Frenchcolonisation.

The track's current maximum limit is only 25 trains per day, or 18 trains per day on some routes.

Theconstruction of a track of the same width and running parallel to thecurrent track would resolve the current problem, the proposal said.

Currently,railway transport accounts for only 0.5 percent of the total passengertransport market and 1 percent of total freight transport.

The sector plans to raise this to a target of 13 percent of passenger transport and 14 percent of freight transport by 2020.

TranNgoc Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Railways Corporation said the currenttrack would be used for the next 36 years until the North-Southhigh-speed railway was completed in 2050.

In the meantime,transport demand has surged, with road transport expanding faster thaninfrastructure has developed. Thanh said another track would helpaccommodate more than 100 trains per day compared with the status quo of25.

If the project is approved, the railway sector could buildthe track itself without the assistance of foreign experts, he added.

The project would be funded from the State budget.-VNA