Construction of the first underground terminal of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line in Ho Chi Minh City – the first of its kind in Vietnam – will begin on Tuesday, the HCMC Urban Railway Management Board said.

>> €850 million pledged for metro line No.5 in HCMC >> ADB gives $500 mln loan to HCMC metro project >> HCMC calls for boost to first metro project The underground terminal will be built under the intersection of Le Loi and Nguyen Hue Streets in front of the Municipal Theater in District 1, the board said. The four-floor facility will be 190 meters long, 26 meters wide, and 40 meters deep. It will be constructed under the top-down method, according to which the diaphragm wall and support columns will be built first, then the soil dug and the floors built from top to bottom. The terminal belongs to Package 1B of the metro line’s section that runs underground from another terminal at the theatre to terminal Ba Son at the Ba Son Enterprise in District 1. Ground was broken on the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line on August 22, 2012 by Japanese contractor Sumitomo and Vietnam’s Traffic Works Construction Corporation 6. The system, estimated to cost US$2.49 billion, is designed to be 19.7 km long, running from District 1 through Binh Thanh District, District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc District in HCMC before reaching Di An Town in neighboring Binh Duong Province. Of the total length, 2.6 km will run underground with three stations, while the remaining sections and another 11 stations will be constructed above ground. The metro line is scheduled to be completed in 2017 and put into operation in 2018, when it can transport about 620,000 passengers per day, the HCMC Transport Department said.

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