The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has entered into an agreement to finance a project that provides integrated information solutions for the central control of the city’s urban railway systems including metro lines in Ho Chi Minh City.
>> Vietnam’s longest expressway to open to traffic Sep. 21 The agreement was signed at a ceremony between representatives of the USTDA and the city’s Urban Railway Management Board on Thursday.
Accordingly, the $1.55 million project will receive a non-refundable aid of US$900,000 from the USTDA and a contribution of nearly US$600,000 from Cisco Systems, an American multinational corporation. The remaining cost of the project, over $91,000, will be covered by the city’s budget. The US-funded project is aimed at studying integrated solutions for the signaling information systems that serve the centralized control of urban railways system in the city. This project is scheduled to be implemented from this September to May 2015. The city’s urban railway system has been planned to include eight metro lines and three underground lines, with a length of 229 km in total. The construction of the first metro line began in August 2012 and is expected to be completed in 2017 at an estimated cost of $2.49 billion.
This is the third time that USTDA has provided a non-refundable aid for the city to build an urban railway system. Speaking at the ceremony, US embassy Chargé d'Affaire Claire Pierangelo said the US technology has an important role in assisting HCMC’s infrastructure development. The US official also expressed his hope that the comprehensive cooperation between the US and Vietnam will further develop in the future. Meanwhile, Mrs. Leocadia Zak, general director of USTDA, said that the assistance to Vietnam in developing passenger transportation is the leading objective of USTDA in its commitment of cooperation with Vietnam. The signing of the above agreement is a demonstration for this commitment, she said.
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