HCMC park gets land back from metro

The cleared part of 8,000 sq.m is half of the park’s area that has been occupied since 2016 to serve the building of Ben Thanh underground station, which lies in front of the city’s iconic Ben Thanh Market.

The remaining area will be cleared once the station is completed in October, said the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), which oversees the project.

But MAUR has told the contractor to open the path across the area to allow people to go through the park from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Ben Thanh is one of three underground stations on HCMC’s metro line No.1, which will run nearly 20 km from Ben Thanh Market to Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc City.

The other two are the Opera House Station near the Opera House and the Ba Son Station on Ton Duc Thang Street by the Saigon River.

Ben Thanh station will be 32 meters below ground and have four stories. The most important of the three underground stations, it will also serve as a transfer station linking with the future lines No. 2, 3 and 4. The station is almost complete.

Work on the city’s first metro line started in 2012. It is now nearly complete and expected to start operation later this year.

After many delays, costs have risen from VND17.4 trillion to about VND43.7 trillion.