VietNamNet Bridge – The authority of District 1 in HCMC said around 2,100 square meters of Tao Dan Park would be cleared to make room for a station of Metro Line No. 2 running from Thu Thiem New Urban Area in District 2 to Tay Ninh Coach Station.


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According to the People’s Committee of District 1, 33 trees would be felled. However, the committee said that as big trees play an important role in the downtown area, prudent steps would be taken to limit the number of trees to be chopped down for the Tao Dan station.

Previously, the city revised the site clearance plan of the Metro Line No.2 in a way that minimizes the area to be cleared and makes use of public areas to save costs. Due to problems with site clearance, the metro line has not progressed as fast as scheduled and only the final station and the maintenance facility of the track got off the ground early this year.

In the first phase of the nearly-20-kilometer metro line, HCMC will develop an 11-kilometer-long section running from a station in front of Ben Thanh Market in the downtown area to Tham Luong Depot in District 12. The section comprises a 9.3-kilometer underground track along Cach Mang Thang Tam Street and an 800-meter elevated track.

The underground section has an average depth of 18 meters while a width of 26 meters is planned for the track on the ground including a safety corridor of three meters in width. The whole track has ten underground and one elevated station.

The cost of the project was initially put at US$1.37 billion, including US$540 million provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), US$313 million by German development bank KfW, US$195 million by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and over US$326 million by the State budget. The figure excludes the costs for construction of Ben Thanh station as well as operation and maintenance facilities.

However, the HCMC Urban Railway Management Authority recently said that total capital for Metro Line No.2 would be adjusted up to over US$2.1 billion due to the devaluation of the Vietnam dong against the U.S. dollar as well as design change and new components added to the metro line.

SGT