HCM City speeds up construction of metro line No. 1

HCM City (VNA) – Two underground packages CP1a and CP1b of the metro line No. 1 project between Ben Thanh Market and Suoi Tien Tourist Park in Ho Chi Minh City was connected with each other on February 17.

According to Huynh Hong Thanh, deputy head of the municipal Management Authority for Urban Railways, 71 percent of the workload has been completed, with the elevated section put into place in June 2018.

Comprising HCM City Opera House and Ba Son stations, the CP1b package, whose construction began in August 2014, has 80 percent of the work fulfilled. Meanwhile, 65 percent of the CP1a package that started in November 2016 and runs through Ben Thanh station has been done.

The Management Authority for Urban Railways is working hard to speed up the construction, ensuring that 85 percent of the four-package project will be completed this year.

Funded in part through an official development assistance loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the project will run nearly 20 kilometres through districts 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh, and Thu Duc and the neighbouring Binh Duong province.

Since construction began in 2012, it has faced a multitude of problems like slow disbursement and personnel-related issues./.