The HCMC government has urged the prime minister to handle the difficulties in advancing funds for the city’s first metro line No. 1 to ensure the progress of the project as planned, the local media reported.

A section of the city’s first metro line adjacent to Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9

Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of HCMC, has written to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and deputy prime minister Trinh Dinh Dung, asking for their approval for a capital advance for the city’s first metro line project connecting Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and Suoi Tien Park in District 9.

Apart from proposing the prime minister assign the municipal government to adjust the project based on guidance from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the city authority asked for the prime minister’s approval to advance some VND2 trillion from the central budget to pay the contractors.

The act was aimed at minimizing disputes, claims and petitions and speeding up construction.

The HCMC government will bear responsibility for advance payment procedures after the Ministry of Planning and Investment draws up a capital plan for the project.

The municipal government proposed the PM should allow the city to use its budget to advance money to the contractors on the first metro line if the central State budget cannot be ready for the project.

The first metro line was funded by official development assistance (ODA) capital from the central State budget and the city’s counterpart funds.

In 2018 and 2019, due to problems related to total investment capital adjustments, the remaining VND4.7 trillion in the 2016-2020 mid-term public investment plan was not allocated to the project.

Meanwhile, the State budget investment plan for 2019, issued by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, shows no capital allocation for the first metro line project.

The 20-kilometer metro line No.1 passes through Districts 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc in HCMC and part of Di An District in neighboring Binh Duong Province. It has 2.6 kilometers of underground tracks and over 17 kilometers of elevated tracks along Hanoi Highway.

SGT