A tour down to the second tunnel of the Ho Chi Minh City metro system, the longest underground passage in Vietnam, provides awe of its technical aspect and working environment. This underground route, stretching from Ba Son Terminal to the Municipal Theater Terminal in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, began to be constructed on January 26 after the first tunnel came into existence in October last year, and is planned to be completed in June. A descent down several steep flights of stairs took a visitor to the building scene more than ten meters below the ground. The tunnel is spacious, closely fitted with prefabricated slabs of concrete and muffled sounds of purring machines from the nearby parallel subterranean passage in the making. Engineers were taking copious notes of the site operation while concrete blocks were being carried from the entrance to the spot of a Japanese-produced tunnel boring machine (TBM). The robot’s drilling bits are the adult’s big-toe size, about 15 centimeters long, and mounted around a circular steel frame. After digging 1.2 meters, the robot stops to install concrete slabs, weighing roughly 3,000 kilograms each and 300 millimeters thick, onto the tunnel walls and floor. Despite the slabs’ bulk and lack of room, this specialized machine managed to position them with exactitude and ease as if it were handling jigsaw pieces, leaving workers with the job of driving bolts for reinforcement. The machine is programmed to ensure that the tunnel is water-proof and able to withstand high… [Read full story]
The Japanese-made tunnel boring machine (TBM) is ready to make its way through Ho Chi Minh City’s underground in preparation for Saigon’s metro line, the largest underground passage in Vietnam. The Japanese-made tunnel boring machine (TBM) is ready to make its way through Ho Chi Minh City’s underground in preparation for Saigon’s metro line, the largest underground passage in Vietnam. The machine is set to begin boring the 781 meter tunnel from Ba Son Terminal to the Municipal Theater Terminal in District 1 on Friday to make way for a section of the city’s metro line No.1 connecting Ben Thanh…... [read more]
The Government Office on July 6 issued a document to announce the decision he had made at a recent meeting with Ho Chi Minh City leaders on the city’s socio-economic development.
He agreed to advance funds to implement the metro project under a public investment plan for 2016-20.
Part of Metro Line No.1 Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien. Photo: sggp.org.vn
The PM also asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to work with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to propose solutions to accelerate disbursement of ODA projects in the city and…... [read more]
The two urban railway projects Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien and Ben Thanh-Tham Luong, which were in the portfolio of important projects receiving national budget funding of at least VND10 trillion ($438 million) each, are confronted with a shortage of capital. A shortage of capital is the key problem of both Line 1 (Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien) and Line 2 (Ben Thanh – Tham Luong) urban railway projects. The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee is the developer responsible for the two projects. At the Metro Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien project, the developer has been slow to pay contractors and may have…... [read more]
More than 1.5 kilometers of track has been installed along Ho Chi Minh City’s metro rail line. Following a two-month construction period, over one and a half kilometers of rail has been added to metro route No.1, connecting Ben Thanh Terminal in District 1 with Suoi Tien Terminal in District 9. The parallel tracks, which will allow trains to travel in both directions, have been placed between the two metro stations in Thu Duc District and District 9. The construction forms part of the plan to build a total of 17 kilometers of elevated train track along metro route No.…... [read more]
More delays are expected for the construction of Ho Chi Minh City’s first metro line due to the insufficient provision of capital.Le Nguyen Minh Quang, head of the city’s Management Authority for Urban Railways, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the city’s Metro Line No.1 project continues to face mounting challenges related to investment.Stretching 19.7 kilometers across the city, Metro Line No.1 connects Ben Thanh Terminal in District 1 with Suoi Tien in District 9, with stops in District 2, Binh Thanh District, and Thu Duc District.The goal of inaugurating the metro line in 2020 could be seriously affected by…... [read more]
