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quick facts

- there is no reliable source for the online rumor. the picture circulated online came from taiwan's china television news, and the original report did not provide the source of the news.

- the first high-speed rail line planned to be built in vietnam was designed and presided over by the ministry of transport of vietnam. the line plan does not include any information such as india or bidding that has been rumored online.

- neither india nor vietnam has any information on the bidding or winning of the vietnam high speed ​​rail project. there is no vietnam high speed ​​rail project in the official documents of “india’s development cooperation project in vietnam”.

- the first high-speed rail project in india, designed to reach a maximum speed of 350 km/h, is still under bidding.

background

recently, a statement has been widely circulated on the chinese internet that "india has won the bid for vietnam's high-speed rail project." according to the content of the pictures circulated on the internet, india and vietnam will jointly build a 1,544-kilometer vietnam high-speed rail project with a total investment of us$64.8 billion. the division of labor is that india will be responsible for construction and operation, and vietnam will be responsible for land resources and policy support.

screenshot of online rumor

check

where do these online rumors come from?

according to the reverse search results of the circulated image on google, the rumor should come from the content of the "cti hot evening news" program on september 2nd of taiwan's cti news. the original report did not mention the source of the news. verification in vietnamese, english, hindi and other languages ​​also did not find a reliable source for the circulated content.

screenshot of china television news tv program

the "1,544-kilometer high-speed rail plan" may have originated from news earlier this year. during his visit to china in march, vietnamese minister of planning and investment nguyen chi dung expressed his hope to learn from china's successful railway development experience and promote new progress in practical railway cooperation between the two countries. on april 1, reuters pointed out that vietnam plans to build a high-speed railway system with a total length of about 1,545 kilometers. the total value of the project may be as high as us$72 billion, accounting for 17% of its gdp. "the vietnamese government said, 'china's railway industry is the most developed in the world, so vietnam hopes to learn from its experience, especially in terms of expertise such as technology, capital mobilization and management.'" the plan does not mention india or bidding.

screenshot of reuters report in april

on july 31, vietnamese prime minister pham minh chinh met with the chairman of the adani group, a leading indian company, and said that vietnam will create all favorable conditions for foreign investors to invest in important infrastructure projects such as highways, airports, seaports, high-speed railways, subways, and logistics centers in vietnam. pham minh chinh suggested that adani invest capital to introduce advanced technology, clean technology, modern management, and projects with spillover effects to vietnam, thereby connecting global production and supply chains. the report also did not mention the bidding.

screenshot of the vietnam news agency report on july 31, which also did not mention that vietnam would bid the high-speed rail project to india.

india and vietnam jointly build high-speed railway?

according to a report released by the vietnamese government on september 6, pham minh cheng chaired a legislative special meeting in july to discuss the north-south axis high-speed rail investment policy project. the review decided that vietnam's first high-speed railway is planned to be completed in 2035. the vietnamese ministry of transport has designed the high-speed railway to run at a speed of 350 km/h, with passenger transport (and freight transport when necessary). the entire line is about 1,541 kilometers long, double-track, with a track gauge of 1,435 mm, and a total investment of about us$65-70 billion.

the report emphasizes that the ministry of transport has learned from the models of 22 countries and regions and organized learning in 6 countries that have and master high-speed rail technology. on this basis, the ministry of transport plans to concentrate resources to start the hanoi-vinh and ho chi minh city-nha trang high-speed rail projects by the end of 2027, with a total length of about 642 kilometers, and complete the entire line of about 899 kilometers by 2030, and strive to complete the entire line by 2035.

the report stressed that vietnam’s first high-speed railway was designed and constructed by the ministry of transport.

the report mentioned china, japan and spain when mentioning the necessity of building high-speed railways, but india and other online information such as bidding did not appear in the entire text.

in addition, there is no "vietnam high-speed ​​rail project" in the bidding section of the official websites of the indian embassy in vietnam, the vietnamese embassy in india, and the vietnamese government. in the "india development cooperation project in vietnam" document released by the indian consulate general in ho chi minh city, the latest cooperation projects include: india will help build community infrastructure in ninh thuan, vietnam from 2019 to 2020, and install prosthetic limbs for disabled people in six provinces of vietnam from 2018 to 2022.

screenshot of the india-vietnam cooperation project document released by the indian consulate general in ho chi minh city

the "india development cooperation projects in vietnam" released by the indian embassy in hanoi includes more early cooperation. the railway-related projects date back to 1989, when india supplied railway equipment including locomotives to vietnam's railway companies.

screenshot of the india-vietnam cooperation project document released by the indian embassy in vietnam

on the other hand, the mumbai-ahmedabad high-speed ​​rail project (mahsr) in india, which is planning to start construction, has launched bidding since july 2023. the project is also india's first railway line with a maximum speed of more than 250 km/h (designed to be 350 km/h). information from its implementing agency, the national high speed ​​rail corporation of india (nhsrcl), shows that the deadline for bidding is october 16 this year. the economic times of india reported in april that nhsrcl could not assess the completion date of the railway project because all engineering biddings had not yet been completed.

screenshot of the indian national high speed ​​rail corporation's bidding information

in summary, there is no reliable source for the online rumors. the pictures on the internet come from taiwan's china television news, and the original report did not provide the source of the news. the first high-speed rail line planned to be built in vietnam was designed and presided over by the ministry of transport of vietnam. there is no information about india or bidding in the plan of this line. neither india nor vietnam has any information about the bidding or winning of the vietnam high-speed rail project. there is no official document of "india's development cooperation project in vietnam" about the vietnam high-speed rail project. the first high-speed rail project in india with a designed maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour is still under bidding.