Metro construction site in downtown HCMC cleared after 7 years

A 150-meter section of Le Loi Street between Nguyen Hue and Pasteur streets, a prime location in HCMC, was fully reopened on Wednesday after being blocked since 2014.

The station in front of the Opera House on Le Loi has been built for metro line No.1 which runs 19.7 kilometers from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien theme park in District 9.

It is one of three underground stations out of a total of 14, some of which are also elevated.

The reopened section of the street has been asphalted and had lane markings painted, the sidewalks have been paved with bricks and the underground drainage and electricity and telecom cables are shipshape.

A part of the construction site on the street remains, with workers now linking the Opera House and Ben Thanh underground stations.

The work is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and the street fully cleared.

Owners of shops on Le Loi are overjoyed that they can get their business back on track after seven years.

"For two weeks now I have been focusing on reorganizing the entire store since its street-front location has eventually been restored, and making plans to expand," Nguyen Khanh Lan, who runs an art materials shop, said.

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 that was delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak to next year.

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