HANOI, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is planning to build two rail routes running to Cambodia and Laos, part of the Trans-Asia railway, to facilitate passenger and cargo transport in the region, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Monday.

    The Vietnam Railway Department under the country's Transport Ministry is coordinating with relevant organizations to map out the two projects on constructing the two routes with total length of 250 km with combined capital of over 8.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 525 million U.S. dollars).

    The two future routes are part of the 5,500-km Trans-Asia railway, which is to begin in Kunming, China's Yunnan province, and travel through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia before terminating in Singapore. The Trans-Asia railway, initiated by Malaysia in 1995, is expected to be completed in 2015.