The inauguration of the first metro line in Ho Chi Minh City 22 December marks the end of a veritable saga. Introduced as part of an initial urban transport plan for this metropolis of over 5 million inhabitants, the construction of the metro has been dragging on and on. The revision of the plan in 2007 and the breaking of the first stone in 2008 pushed back the inauguration to 2014. Following difficulties in financing the project, construction was suspended and resumed in 2012, with a view to opening in 2018. Postponed again until 2015, the authorities then set the opening date for 2020.
The Covid epidemic once again delayed the project. Finally, line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien section), financed by Japanese loans, officially entered service. With a total length of 19.7 kilometres and 14 stations, it is expected to accommodate 160,000 passengers a day. in the first year of operation. The authorities estimate that it will carry 635,000 passengers a day by 2030.
Line 1 is not only the city's first urban rail line, but also the first with three underground stations. The line is due to be extended in due course. While work has begun on the city's second metro line. It is scheduled to open around 2028.
Other Asian metropolises are equipping themselves with metros
Ho Chi Minh City suit Hanoi, which inaugurated its first aerial metro line (T2A) in 2021 with 12 stations. In August, the authorities inaugurated a section of the second metro line (T3), again after a decade of delays. The two lines connect.
With the Saigon metro, Asia (excluding the Middle East) has 99 cities with this means of transport. China is the country with the most metros, with 47 cities.in front of India (17 systems) and the Japan (11 systems). In India, the cities of Kanpur, Pune and, most recently, Agra, now have their own metro systems.
Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Jakarta (Indonesia) are the two cities that have also recently inaugurated metro lines. Dhaka launched its first line in 2022, Jakarta in 2019. While Jakarta Bangkok had the highest number of inaugurations of lines over the last decade, with no fewer than four metro and monorail lines.
