On August 24, 2026, the Vietnamese National Assembly officially approved the railway project investment adjustment plan, adding a huge amount of funds to the Lao Cai Hanoi Hai Phong Railway. The project will change the traditional model of construction before expansion, comprehensively optimize the route design and supporting facilities, and upgrade the regional cross-border transportation system with one-time high standard construction.

Large scale capital increase and quality improvement project

The additional investment for this project is 86.108 trillion Vietnamese dong, equivalent to 22.1 billion yuan, bringing the total investment to 289.339 trillion Vietnamese dong. As of now, the project has been allocated 148.48 trillion Vietnamese dong and is planned to be completed and opened to traffic by 2030. The newly added funds will be mainly used for equipment procurement, engineering upgrades, land acquisition and resettlement, etc. Among them, the investment in construction and equipment will increase by 51.2 trillion Vietnamese dong, and the compensation and resettlement costs will increase by 34 trillion Vietnamese dong, comprehensively consolidating the foundation of project construction.

Optimize the road network architecture

This adjustment has achieved multiple key upgrades. The section from Beihong to Nanhai Defense Zone has been changed from a single track to a double track, with an additional 8.4 kilometers of Anyuan Jialin branch line and optimized station layout. After adjustment, the total length of the main line of the project is 363 kilometers, which is 26 kilometers shorter than the original plan, and the total length of the branch line is nearly 63 kilometers, adding 35 kilometers. The line segments are matched with different speed standards, and the main and newly added branch lines use electric traction. The port branch line will replace the clean energy traction mode in the long term. Keywords: infrastructure upgrade, railway investment expansion

Transform the construction approach

This project is an important cross-border railway channel between China and Vietnam, and this capital increase marks a comprehensive shift in construction ideas, from step-by-step expansion to one-time high standard construction. The new model can avoid repeated construction and land acquisition costs in the later stage, and improve the efficiency of road network traffic. The new branch line can shorten the local travel time in Hanoi and create billions of economic benefits annually. At present, some of the project works have started in December 2025, and various regions are accelerating the land acquisition guarantee work.Editor/Min Jing