Construction of an aboveground station of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro system, the first in Vietnam so far, kicked off in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, according to the HCMC Urban Railway Management Board.

>> 2nd part of Vietnam’s first metro line breaks ground in southern hub>> Vietnam hub to begin construction of 1st metro line terminal tomorrow >> €850 million pledged for metro line No.5 in HCMC >> ADB gives $500 mln loan to HCMC metro project The terminal, named Binh Thai, is the first of the 11 aboveground stations of the 19.7-km metro line project, which first began construction two years ago. The station will be 137.5 meters long and 23 meters wide with three floors when completed. The ground floor, 7.2 meters high, is intended for passengers to enter and leave the terminal; the first floor, with a height of 13.8 meters, is for trains to pick up and drop off passengers; and the second floor, which is 19.5 meters high, is for the station’s offices and machinery. The station is expected to be completed in December 2016. In order to ensure safety in the construction site, the city Department of Transport has re-arranged traffic in the area and banned cars from traveling on Nguyen Van Ba Street. Last Friday, July 25, a 1.8 km underground section of the country’s first metro line broke ground in the city, stretching under the Municipal Theater to an area below Ba Son Enterprise in District 1. This section is under package 1B of the metro project, implemented by the Japanese consortium contractor Shimizu-Meada and valued at ¥23.17 billion (US$229.1 million). In August 2012, Japanese contractor Sumitomo and Vietnam’s Traffic Works Construction Corporation 6 (Cienco 6) began construction on the 17.1 km aboveground portion of the line. The line, estimated to cost $2.49 billion in total, is designed to run 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.

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