Vietnam’s biggest city of Ho Chi Minh aims to complete and put in use metro route No. 2 in 2017, Nguyen Van Quoc, director of the project management board said at a loan signing ceremony with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently. The metro route 2 has a total investment of $1.37 billion with $540 million from ADB, $195 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and $313 million from the German Reconstruction Credit Institute (KfW). Ben Thanh-Tham Luong metro route was designed to have a total length of 20 kilometers, beginning at Thu Thiem in District 2 and ending in An Suong Bus Station in District 12. The project will be divided into two phase, with the first phase focusing on construction of 11-kilometer section from Ben Thanh market to Tham Luong with 11 stations. Earlier in early 2011, the Vietnamese government signed the first loan agreement worth EUR28 million with the Germany government for the project. (giaothongvantai.com.vn Jun 18)
