HCMC gets downtown street back from metro construction site

[ASEAN NOW News]

A section of Le Loi Street in downtown HCMC is cleared from the construction site of the city's metro line No.1 on April 27, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Anh

 

A Le Loi Street section that had been blocked for building HCMC's metro line station was cleared after six years on Wednesday.

 

According to VN Express, the 50-meter section, from the Pasteur intersection to Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, has been resurfaced and all barriers there will be removed before April 30 for traffic to resume normal operation.

 

As one of the busiest streets in HCMC’s District 1, Le Loi has been blocked since 2016 to build the Ben Thanh Station, one of the three underground stations of the metro line No.1.

 

The station, which is about thirty-two meters underground, has four floors with six entrances, is now more than 95 percent complete.

 

According to the project investor, the Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), barriers at three other intersections on Le Loi, which is less than 1km long, will be returned one after another by May 20, June 10, and Sep. 1 this year.

 

Last April, a section of 150 m from Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street to Pasteur had been cleared.

 

Nguyen Quoc Hien, deputy head of the MAUR, said returning the street back to its original purpose will not only contribute to easing traffic jams in the area but allow vendors to revive their businesses.

 

Set to cost over VND43.7 trillion ($1.89 billion), HCMC's first metro line will run around twenty kilometers from near Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc, have three underground stations and eleven on the surface.

 

After several delays, the line is now more than 90 percent complete and set to be up and running at the end of 2023.

 

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