Vietnam to spend $286 mln fencing illegal crossing

A government decision issued recently on improving railway safety says that over 675 kilometers of frontage roads and fences will be built and 305 new crossing paths laid over the next six years (2020-2025).

There were 5,557 intersections on railway tracks across Vietnam last year, most of them opened illegally by local residents living nearby, according to railway operator Vietnam Railways.

Last year, 257 railway accidents killed 110 people and injured 180 others.

With the new safety plan, the government aims to bring the annual number of railway accidents down by 5-10 percent.

Vietnam currently has over 3,000 kilometers of railway tracks, none of them high-speed. Several projects in the pipeline envisage major upgrades in the coming years.