While progress on Saigon’s Metro Line 1 and Line 2 is lagging behind due to delays in funding reimbursement and land clearance, city officials have recently finished a formal plan to commence construction of Metro Line 3A in the near future.
As VietnamNet reports, municipal authorities have come up with a detailed plan to get Metro Line 3A up and running by 2026, less than a decade away. When finished, the route will connect Ben Thanh Market in District 1 with Tan Kien Commune in Binh Chanh District. The government report was submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment on November 10.
The line will intersect with Line 1 and Line 3B at Ben Thanh Station, thus bringing together residents from Saigon’s western, central and eastern communities. Moreover, the system will also link the metropolis’ two major bus stations: Mien Dong in the east and Mien Tay in the west.
Metro Line 3A will be constructed in two phases: first, a 9.7 kilometer-long from Ben Thanh to Mien Tay Bus Station; and second, more than 10 kilometers from the bus terminal to Tan Kien.
Video via YouTube channel Maur Tphcm.
Money-wise, the report estimates that the metro route will carry a price tag of US$2.73 billion (VND62 trillion), meaning each kilometer will cost almost US$140 million. For a line with both above-ground and underground sections, this is not completely unreasonable.
According to CityLab, Singapore’s 35.4-kilometer Circle Line – which is completely underground – cost US$130 million per kilometer. London’s 16-kilometer Jubilee Line and Amsterdam’s 10-kilometer North-South Line were considerably more expensive, at US$350 and US$400 million per kilometer, respectively.
The metro project’s website states that funding for the new line will come from official development assistance grants (ODA) approved by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in January 2016.
