Gov’t approves study for two metro routes in HCM City

The government has approved a pre-feasibility study for two subway routes in HCM City, but has said that certain aspects need to be reworked.
The city’s authorities were also told by deputy prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung to recalculate the project’s capital, estimated to be close to US$800 million. If the required capital exceeds 10 trillion dong, the project must be submitted to the National Assembly for approval in line with a 1997 regulation.
So far the pre-feasibility study has shown that building the two subway routes with a combined length of more than 20 kilometres will require US$795 million, excluding any preventive fees. Thirty percent or US$238.5 million will come out of the city budget and mainly be used for compensation, site clearance and resettlement.
For the rest the government plans to ask for ODA loans from the German and Australian government (US$120 million and US$20 million respectively) and borrow from the Chinese government and the China Railway Construction Group (US$290 million) and from German banks (US$126.5 million).
But the HCM City Urban Metro Preparation Unit (UMPU) and the project consulting board, consisting of Vietnam’s Transport Development Study Centre in the South and Germany’s Transport East West Specialist team GmbH, are still perfecting the study before going to the government, UMPU deputy head Le Hong Ha said on October 7.
“We hope to complete work on the feasibility study this month, so that it can be submitted to the government in time for the NA’s session in November,” Ha said.
The first subway, Ben Thanh-Tham Luong, would go along the North–South corridor from District 1 to District 12 while the second, Ben Thanh–Mien Tay Coach Station, would run along the East–West corridor from District 1 to Binh Chanh District.

 

Category: Business