VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City administration has approved a detailed plan to build a new eastern bus station, which would help ease the overload at the existing station in the city's Binh Thanh District.

The HCM City administration has approved a detailed plan to build a new eastern bus station, which would help ease the overload at the existing station in the city's Binh Thanh District.

Under the plan, the new Mien Dong Bus Station would be built in September with an investment of VND2 trillion (US$ 95.9 million), according to Tran Quoc Toan, deputy general director of the project owner, Sai Gon Transportation Mechanical Corporation (Samco).

The coach station will be built on an area of more than 16 hectares in District 9 and Binh Duong Province's Di An Town.

The project would include a square, passenger terminal, customer service area and office space, as well as a shopping mall, restaurants, hotels and entertainment facilities.

The six-storey main terminal would also include areas for vehicle parking, management, petrol trading, vehicle repair and maintenance, and vehicle registration.

Under the project, 31 households and five State companies would be relocated.

Binh Duong Province said it would complete site clearance by this month and HCM City will finish it by the end of the year.

Site clearance will cost about VND500 billion ($24 million), which will come from the city budget. The city has already advanced VND100 billion ($4.8 million), according to Toan.

The site clearance work is being carried out in both HCM City and Binh Duong Province so the project progress will not be delayed, Toan added.

The new station will connect to bus routes and the new Metro Line No. 1 from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien entertainment area in Thu Duc District.

Upon project completion, passengers can choose to take either the bus or metro to the city centre.

The coach station is expected to be completed by 2018, at around the same time as the completion of Metro Line No 1.

It will help meet rising demand of travelling from HCM City to northern and central provinces as well as reduce overload at the existing coach station.

For the current 60,200-sq.m Mien Dong Bus Station, the city plans to auction 50 per cent of the land area to compensate for site clearance work for Samco.

Only commercial projects will be permitted on the auctioned land site.

The rest of the station will be maintained as a station for bus services to the Central Highlands' provinces.

Source: VNS