Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have pledged to have the long-awaited metro line No. 1, which runs from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in Thu Duc City, begin commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The municipal administration has sent a dispatch to the Ministry of Planning and Investment detailing the progress and the completion time of the first metro line.

The move was aimed at getting feedback from relevant units before the city’s administration submits a report on the adjustment of the execution time of its first metro line to the prime minister.

The link is 98 percent complete, according to the administration.

In an effort to put the link into commercial operations by the end of the year, the Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways, the investor of the project, should speed up appraisal, safety assessment, and infrastructure handover processes and complete project-finishing procedures.

The project will be granted a system safety certificate from July to November this year, said the municipal People’s Committee.

During the five-month period, the State Council for Acceptance of Construction Projects will appraise all the relevant components of the metro line project.

The entire metro line will run on a trial basis in October and November before it starts commercial operations by the end of the fourth quarter.

The prime minister had previously given a nod to a delay in the completion of the metro line No. 1 project in February 2023. As such, the new completion deadline was the last quarter of 2023, two years later than previously planned.

However, the project’s completion was still postponed and extended to the end of 2024.

The municipal administration affirmed that the adjustment of its completion deadline from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024 would not either change other main contents or affect lending agreements.

The investor and contractors are focusing on the rest of the project’s workload, while public investment capital is being disbursed rapidly.

The cost of the project is being managed appropriately, the administration said, underscoring that it will not let the project encounter a cost overrun due to the adjustment.

In May, the ambassador of Japan to Vietnam wrote to Ho Chi Minh City chairman Phan Van Mai noting that the first metro line will be completed in 2024.

“The Japanese side believes that it is possible to commercially operate the first metro line by the end of 2024,” according to the Japanese ambassador’s dispatch.

“Training courses will be held in August and September, while the entire metro system will undergo a test run in October and November,” the ambassador asserted.

Metro line No. 1, the first of its kind among the eight planned metro line projects in Ho Chi Minh City, carried a price tag of VND43.7 trillion (US$1.8 billion).

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