The Metro Line No. 2, Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien, is under construction (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the HCM City administration to review and complete a report on adjustments of the Metro Line No. 2 section from Ben Thanh in District 1 to Tham Luong in District 12 as the investment costs have surged by more than 50 percent.
According to the Government Office, the Transport Ministry will report to the National Assembly's Standing Committee.
Meanwhile, the city government will have to seek official development assistance (ODA) loans to finance the additional cost.
The Ben Thanh-Tham Luong metro section is 11.33 kilometres long and was set to be implemented from 2010 to 2018 at a cost of 26.1 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD).
The amount included 540 million USD from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 313 million USD from the German Development Bank (KfW), 195 million USD from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and over 326 million USD from Vietnam's reciprocal capital.
However, the project's investments surged by 51 percent to 2.07 billion USD last year after design revisions. This amount does not cover Ben Thanh Station and operation and maintenance costs.
The HCM City Management Authority for Urban Railways attributed the mounting investment to inflation (239.98 million USD or 17.5 percent) during the last five years (2010-15), higher prices of materials and wages, and increased workload (460.32 million USD or 33.5 percent).
Due to adjustments for site clearance and compensation for construction of stations, work did not begin on the section's final station and control building until early last year.-VNA
