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Vietnam's HCM City plans to expand metro system to airport

Xinhua, June 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City is seeking permission to expand one of its metro lines to Tan Son Nhat, now the country's biggest airport, local online newspaper Thanh Nien (Young People) News reported Thursday.

In a proposal submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the city recommended a two-kilometer line linking the airport and to the planned Metro Line No.5 in Tan Binh District. It asked the ministry to seek funding from the Export-Import Bank of Korea for the project's feasibility study, expected to start next year.

Line No.5 will start at the Saigon Bridge and end at Can Giuoc Bus Station in Binh Chanh District.

The municipal authorities have managed to secure funding for its first stage, estimated at 1.75 billion U.S. dollars. Nearly 30 percent of the cost will be covered by the state budget.

Work on the line's first stage will not start until the project is approved by legislators, Bui Khac Huynh, deputy chief of the management board for the city's urban railways, told the press in April.

Under Vietnam's law on public investment, any project which costs the state budget more than 10 trillion Vietnamese dong (457. 87 million U.S. dollars) must get approval from the National Assembly, the country's top legislative body.

The city has launched construction of the first two of its six metro lines, both expected to start operating in 2020. The first line runs between Ben Thanh and Suoi Tien in District 9, and the second one connects An Suong and the new urban area Thu Thiem in District 2. Endit