Downtown HCMC underground metro station almost ready

The station, located on Ton Duc Thang Street near the Saigon River in District 1, is 240 meters long, 34 meters wide and 17 meters deep. It has two basements, featuring a ticket lounge and a train platform.

The first floor has already been completed, with progress pushed forward by a month, said the investor, the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR).

The station has five entrances, including two along Ton Duc Thang Street and one along the Saigon River bank.

Once the entire station is completed, it will also function as an important traffic hub in the city's downtown area as it connects with several major streets including Ton Duc Thang, Nguyen Huu Canh, Le Thanh Ton and Ly Tu Trong.

For now, tracks have been laid underground to link Ba Son with the Opera House Station, which has been basically completed on Le Loi Street just in front of the city's iconic Opera House. This connection is 781 meters long.

These are two of the three underground stations for the city's first metro line, which will run 19.7 km from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien theme park in Thu Duc City with 14 stations in total.

The other underground station, Ben Thanh, is now 88 percent complete.

Work on the much-delayed line, which began in 2012, is more than 84 percent complete now.

The city had hoped to begin commercial operations by the end of this year, but this has been delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak to next year.

It plans to build eight metro lines running a total of 220 km.