Construction of a flyover above the Hanoi Highway in Ho Chi Minh City has kicked off as part of the first metro line in the city, local transport authorities have said. A contractor consortium of Japan’s Sumitomo and Vietnam’s Traffic Works Construction Corporation 6 is the builder of the overpass, according to the municipal Urban Railway Management Board. The flyover is designed to be 250 meters long and 11 meters wide for metro trains to travel in two lanes, one leading downtown and the other heading out of the area.  The bridge will be Y-shaped and has a clearance height of 4.75 meters. This is the fifth flyover belonging to the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, the first of its kind, connecting Ben Thanh Terminal in District 1 and Suoi Tien Amusement Park in District 9. The other four overpasses are being built above the Saigon River, the Rach Chiec Canal, Dien Bien Phu Street and Van Thanh Canal.  The metro line has a total length of 19.7km, including 2.6km underground, and will run through 14 stations, with three underground ones. Construction of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line began in August 2012. The 17.1 km aboveground section of the line – running from the Ba Son terminal in District 1 to the Suoi Tien terminal in District 9 – is expected to be put into use in 2019. The entire metro system is planned to be completed in 2020 at a total cost of over VND47.325 trillion (nearly US$2.17 billion), the Giao Thong (Traffic) newspaper quoted Bui Xuan Cuong, head of the Urban Railway Management Board, as saying at a press conference on June 18. Most of the investment will come from Japan’s official development assistance, and the rest will be covered by the Ho Chi Minh City administration, Cuong said.

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