The ground-breaking ceremony of HCM City’s subway No 2, running from Ben Thanh Market to An Suong, took place on August 24 with the attendance of Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

The project covers a stretch of 11.3km starting at Tay Ninh bus station through Truong Chinh, Cach Mang Thang Tam, Pham Hong Thai, Ben Thanh, Ham Nghi, Saigon River to the Thu Thiem new residential area in District 2.

It includes over 9.3km running underground, with ten underground stations and a branch road of nearly 1km linking it to Tham Luong depot station and 1km of overhead road.

This route runs from southeast to northwest and will help to solve traffic jams in Districts 3 and 10 and some parts of the city center.

The project has a total investment of 23.67 billion dong ($1.25 billion), sourced from official development assistance (ODA) loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Investment Bank, and corresponding loans from the State Budget. Non-refundable aid includes 85.75 million euros.

It is scheduled to be completed by 2015 and will be put into operation in 2016 with ticket fares estimated at 3000 dong per trip from 2016-2019. The traveling time for 11.3km from Ben Thanh to An Suong is estimated at only 20 minutes.

Earlier, HCM City kicked off construction of 19.7km subway No. 1 from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien. This route runs through Districts 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh, Thu Duc, and Binh Duong province’s Di An district. The construction is scheduled to be completed by late 2014 and will be in use by 2015.

PV