Nearly 5,000 billion VND for metro underground section Ben Thanh- Opera House –Metro Route No.1

The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of an underground session from Ben Thanh station to the municipal Opera House station of the metro route No. 1 Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien.

Delegates press the groundbreaking button of the Underground Metro Ben Thanh with the investment of 5.000 billion vnd

On November 17^th, the management board of the HCM City urban railway projects held a handing over the contract and groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of an underground session from Ben Thanh station to the municipal Opera House station of the metro route No. 1 Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien. The Sumitomo Mitsui – Cienco 4 contractor joint venture won bidding package No. 1a with a bid of 4,850 billion VND (25.6 million JPY. Vice-Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Le Van Khoa attended and pressed the groundbreaking button.

According to Le Nguyen Minh Quang, head of the management board, the package will build Ben Thanh central station and a 515m tunnel from Ben Thanh station to the municipal Opera House station under Le Loi Street. Ben Thanh will compose of the four-basement, 11,260m2 for B1 basement with 9.2m height, 6.785m2 for each B2, B3, B4  with the height of  14,65m, 22,7m và 28,05m  respectively. It also includes three ventilation towers and six entrances to the Ben Thanh station. For the on-ground work, Package 1A has 03 ventilation towers and 6 accessing points to Ben Thanh station.

Mr. Hiroshia Mashiko, Director of Civil Construction Department of Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd. said there are special loan terms of ODA stipulated in the Contract with the purpose of transferring Japan’s technical management and superior construction to the Vietnam side. Therefore, there is no division of work as well as construction items between Sumitomo and Cienco4 but consistently agree to mutually implement and transfer technology in the best way instead.

The contractor conducts a groundbreaking ceremony

Le Van Khoa, Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, emphasizes that Metro Line 1 is invested with funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the reciprocal capital of the city budget. The project was started on August 28, 2012, and the bidding work has been now completed, 3/4 official contract has been handed to the contractor accordingly. Package 1b, package No. 2, and No. 3 of the project are in progress, ensuring quality.

“Handling over the contract and groundbreaking of Package No.1A for an underground session from Ben Thanh station to the municipal Opera House station make an important significance as this is the final package of the route No.1. The implementation and completion of the package mean completing the project to put the whole route into operation in 2020”. 

The metro route No.1 is 19.7km long and has a total investment of 2.49 billion USD funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the reciprocal capital of the city budget. Metro route No.1 includes 4 main packages, in which package No.2 constructs 17.1km of overhead facilities and has reached 63% fulfilled. Package No. 3 focuses on purchasing and installing equipment, wagons, locomotives, track, and maintenance, with 11 percent completed, while package No. 1b builds an underground section from the municipal Operate House to Ba Son, with 38% fulfilled.

  Mai Huyen

Quoted from Traffic newspaper