A Japanese-Vietnamese contractor consortium on Tuesday started the construction of the Rach Chiec station of the first metro line of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, the local Urban Railway Management Board said.

>> Vietnam metropolis begins building 4-floor underground section of 1st metro line station

The station is the second that has broken ground out of the 14 terminals of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, the first of its kind in the country that is under construction by the contractor consortium comprised of Japan’s Sumitomo and Vietnam’s Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No. 6 (Cienco 6). The Rach Chiec terminal is to be built above ground on the Hanoi highway in District 2, while the first station, the Municipal Theater station, is being built underground in District 1. The 3-storey second station is designed to be 137 meters long, 23 meters wide and 20 meters high. Upon completion, the facility can serve up to 8,300 passengers of the metro line per hour. The line is 19.7 km long, running from District 1 through Binh Thanh District, District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc District in Ho Chi Minh City before reaching Di An Town in neighboring Binh Duong Province. It includes a 17.1 km aboveground part with 11 terminals and a 2.6 km underground section that has three stations. The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board is the investor of this metro project, which is estimated to cost US$2.49 billion.

The metro line, which broke ground in August 2012, is slated to be completed in 2017 and put into operation in 2018, when it can transport about 620,000 passengers per day, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport.

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