Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee held a meeting on Sunday to call for efforts to boost the progress of Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro system, the first of its kind in Vietnam, so that it can be completed on 2018 as scheduled.

>> ADB gives $500 mln loan to HCMC metro project

Speaking at the meeting, Tat Thanh Cang, director of the Transport Department, urged the project’s investor, consultant and contractors to mobilize all possible resources to build and complete the $2.4 billion project on schedule and in accordance with required standards on quality and safety.

Cang also asked the Thu Duc District People’s Committee to step up with site clearance to hand the site to the contractor as soon as possible.

The builders of the projects include Japanese contractor Sumitomo and the Traffic Works Construction Corporation 6 (Cienco 6), which started construction on the project in August 2012.

Currently, the workforce at the site is 200 people including engineers, but the number will be increased to 2,000 in the near future when the special bridges will be built over the Saigon River and Rach Chiec River, a representative of the Sumitomo-Cienco 6 joint venture reported.

On completion, the 19.7 km long metro line will run through District 1, Binh Thanh District, District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc District in HCMC, before reaching Di An Town in 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 department said.

In a related development, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) and the State Bank of Vietnam on July 5 signed an agreement in which the ADB will grant a US$500 million loan, the second of its kind, to the second line of the metro project in Ho Chi Minh City. In March the ADB granted $40 million to the same project. This amount was spent on studies, surveys and designs that served as preparatory work for the metro project. Total investment for the metro line is estimated at nearly US$1.375 billion, of which $540 million has been given by ADB, $313 million will be granted by KFW –  a German government-owned development bank; $195 million will come from the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the rest will be the counterpart capital of HCMC.

The second metro line will be 11.3 km long, running from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 through Tan Son Nhat airport in Tan Binh District to Tham Luong in District 12. The underground part of the line will be 9.315 km in length.