The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide 1.7 million USD in the form of a technical assistance (TA) grant in order to develop two urban mass transit (MRT) rail lines in Ho Chi Minh City.

An agreement on the grant was signed by ADB Country Director for Viet Nam Ayumi Konishi, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Phung Khac Ke, and Director of the Ho Chi Minh City ’s Department of Public Transportation Tran Quang Phuong, in Ha Noi on May 3.

Accordingly, the TA will make preparations for two out of the total six MRT lines that Ho Chi Minh City plans to develop from now to 2020, with an expected total budget of more than 5 billion USD. The two lines, projected to cover a total of 20.6 kilometres with 22 stations, will traverse the city’s central business districts.

“The MRT can provide convenient, comfortable, safe, affordable, and clean urban travel, thus reducing reliance on private modes of travel ad improving the quality of urban living for Ho Chi Minh residents,” Ayumi said.

The grant will finance the preparation of a consolidated MRT network master plan and land use strategy that maximises MRT use. It will also help draw up preliminary engineering designs and technical and operational standards, with supporting social, environmental, technical, economic and financial appraisals.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Deputy Governor Ke spoke highly of the assistance of the ADB and the Japanese government. He said he hoped that the project will help improve public transport systems in particular and infrastructure development in general in Ho Chi Minh City .

The TA project is scheduled to be completed by April 2008.

Source: VNA