The sixteenth and seventh trains of Ho Chi Minh City’s metro line No. 1 have arrived at a seaport in the Vietnamese southern metropolis after an eight-day journey from Japan.
The two last trains, carried by container ship Kalapati, reached the Khanh Hoi Port on Friday noon, the city’s Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) reported.
The trains, consisting of three cars each, will be transported by specialized vehicles to Long Binh depot in Thu Duc City on Saturday and next Monday for trial operations.
The last delivery of trains marked a turning point leading to the comprehensive test and operation phase of the city’s first metro line project, said Nguyen Quoc Hien, deputy head of the MAUR.
Each Japanese-manufactured train is 61.5 meters long and can carry 930 passengers, including 147 seating and 783 standing guests.
The metro line is 19.7 kilometers long, including 2.6 kilometers of underground railways and 17.1 kilometers of elevated tracks.
It runs from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in Thu Duc City through three underground stations and 11 stops above the ground.
The line is designed to have 17 trains, with 51 cars in total, and can run at up to 110 kilometers per hour above the ground and 80 kilometers per hour underground.
The first train was delivered to the port on October 8, 2020.
The metro project, which started in August 2012, has a total investment of VND43,700 billion (US$1.9 billion), most of which comes from Japan’s official development assistance (ODA) aid, according to the MAUR.
The project was previously slated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021, but due to the impact of COVID-19, the completion time has been re-scheduled to the end of 2023.
About 90.5 percent of the metro line has been finished so far, the MAUR said.
Upon operation, the line is expected to run 300 trains per day, with the first train departing at 5:00 am and the last at 11:00 pm.
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