According to the municipal Department of Transport, the Metro Line No. 1 project, which links Ben Thanh Market in downtown HCMC and Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9, is some 68% complete. It is expected to be 90% complete by the end of this year and could be put into service in the third quarter of 2021, reported Thanh Nien newspaper.
For the Metro Line No. 2 project, running from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Tham Luong Depot in District 12, the investor has worked with sponsors to arrange for capital and has cooperated with the relevant agencies to speed up compensation and resettlement. The second railway is scheduled for completion by 2026.
The transport department is now working on the investment plan for the fifth metro line in the city.
This project’s prefeasibility study is set to be submitted to the State Appraisal Council before being sent to the National Assembly, heard attendees at an online review meeting of the Ministry of Transport on January 2.
The project in its first phase will be some 8.9 kilometers long, starting from Bay Hien Intersection in Tan Binh District to Saigon Bridge. It will link with the Metro Line No. 2 project through a stabling yard at Hoang Van Thu Park, with Metro Line No.4 project at Phu Nhuan Intersection and with Metro Line 3b project at Hang Xanh station.
The fifth metro line will include an underground stabling yard covering two hectares of land at Hoang Van Thu Park, eight underground stations and one elevated station.
Its first section required some 833 million euros in investment when it was registered as an ODA project, according to a report from the HCMC Urban Railway Management Board sent to the municipal government in 2011.
However, the total investment rose 87% to over 1.5 billion euros in a prefeasibility study for developing urban railway projects in 2017, as a result of the project’s review.
Speaking at the meeting, a senior representative of the municipal transport department said that most of the metro line projects in the city have fallen behind schedule.
Heavy investment, the use of ODA loans and complicated technical requirements have triggered many obstacles to execution, putting the projects under review with sluggish progress. Moreover, the capacity and experience of local investors and consulting units are limited, and site clearance and compensation activities are facing difficulties, stated the official.
