The event held on April 24 marks an important milestone for the beginning of the journey to regenerate Vietnam's heritage railway which is more than 100-year-old. This historic construction in the worldwide railway industry is 84km long, connecting "sea and flowers", is not the only ancient cog railway in Asia but also the longest cog railway with the highest slope in the world.

In Vietnam, the Phan Rang-Da Lat Railway is one of only two mountain railways in the world that runs on cogwheels. Along with the Pinlatus-Bahn in Switzerland, the Phan Rang-Da Lat Railway has made a bold mark in the history of global railway industry.

Since 2020, Corex has accompanied Crystal Bay Tourism Group to start doing research on the regenerate project of Phan Rang-Da Lat heritage Railway. As a unit specializing in consulting, investing and deploying real estate - cultural tourism products, Corex has been selected as the general consulting contractor, holding the role of project manager and coordinator along with top planning and railroad experts in Vietnam and worlwide such as the French Railway Corporation, the French Institute of Railway Engineering Design, the Transport Construction and Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company (TRICC) and Dr. Cong Phu, Vice President of APAVE Group and General Director of APAVE Asia - Pacific.

Ms. Nguyen Hoai Thu, Chairman of Corex, said: “Regeneration of the Phan Rang-Da Lat cog railway will help elevating national tourism, attracts to tourist experiences, and contributes to the localities socio-economic development where the route passes, especially the strength of beautiful landscape of mountain in Lam Dong and marine tourism in Ninh Thuan.”

The Phan Rang-Da Lat Railway is oriented to be restored and repaired, in order to provide the tourist experience about culture and history while they travel on train. Phan Rang-Da Lat route has 17 stations with 6 main stations. Each station area will be designed and built into experience destinations with unique stories of indigenous culture and high-class tourism products.

Phan Rang-Da Lat railway line converges all 3 factors determining the attractiveness of railway tourism in the world: it is built on adventurous terrain with extremely difficult technical conditions but very beautiful impressive scenery. The topography and technical conditions are considered to be a big and long-term challenge for Crystal Bay Group, Corex as well as experts and contractors who involved in the project.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Chi, Chairman of Crystal Bay Tourism Group, said: "The Phan Rang-Da Lat Heritage Railway will be an extremely important piece to promote the development of "Khanh Hoa-Lam Dong-Ninh Thuan Tourist triangle” in the future. We expect by 2030, this "Tourist Triangle" where Ninh Thuan is place of central will welcome more than 50 million tourists. In particular, the railway with new experiences will attract and serve more than 5 million passengers per year travelling on and along the unique Phan Rang-Da Lat cog railway.”

PV