On February 19, at the Tao Dan station, the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway (the investor) began relocating the technical infrastructure to serve Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh – Tham Luong).
Mr. Vu Van Vịnh – Director of Project Management Board 2 of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR), said that after the traditional Tet holiday, on February 19, the contractor and MAUR are focusing on implementing the relocation of technical infrastructure at the Tao Dan station of the Ben Thanh – Tham Luong metro line.
“Currently, the contractor is constructing the junction box and cable pulling for the relocation of the electrical works – specifically the 110kV underground cable from Ben Thanh to Tao Dan. Accordingly, the initial axis will go straight from Tao Dan Park to Bui Thi Xuan Street. The station will be located in this area, so the power lines need to be relocated to both sides to hand over a clean site to the main contractors for the construction of the station,” Vịnh said.
Workers start to relocate the 110kV underground cable line from Ben Thanh to Tao Dan to prepare the site for the Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 2 project. Photo: Huu Huy
According to Vịnh, in 2024, the board will focus its resources on construction at 12 locations. Among them, there are 10 locations preparing the site for the stations and two excavated sections to basically complete the relocation of the technical infrastructure. The remaining parts will be constructed in the first half of 2025 to be ready to hand over the site to the main contractors in 2025 according to the plan.
“The construction time will mainly focus on nighttime. During the day, we will only restore the site and coordinate the synchronous operation to ensure traffic safety,” Vịnh informed.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tan – the engineer in charge of the bid plan package under the PC1 Conglomerate, said that the high-voltage power line relocation has the characteristic that the underground cables are placed 2.4 meters deep compared to the road surface. Therefore, there are many risks during the excavation process. Thus, the contractor needs to focus on landslide prevention to ensure safety for the households around as well as vehicles moving close to the construction site.
“The plan set by the unit for relocating the underground cable in the Tao Dan area is to pull the cable by the end of April 2024. The construction of the technical infrastructure relocation for this item mainly involves the mobilization of machinery and manpower, with about 40 people including bridge and road workers, electrical workers…” Tan said.
The Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 2 project (Ben Thanh – Tham Luong) has a total investment of nearly VND 47,900 billion with a total length of 11.042 kilometers (of which the underground section is about 9.091 kilometers; the aboveground section, transit section, and depot connecting lines are about 1.951 kilometers). The starting point of the line is Ben Thanh Station (District 1) and the endpoint is the Tham Luong depot (District 12) including 9 underground stations, 1 elevated station, and 1 depot.
The clearance works for the entire project have achieved about 86% up to now. The main obstacle currently is the cases in District 3 (about 70 cases) related to compensation unit price.
Vịnh said that at the end of 2023, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has directed to resolve the obstacles related to adjusting the compensation unit price. By the end of January 2024, District 3 has approved the adjustment of the unit price for all related cases.
“Currently, District 3 is proceeding to pay compensation to the people, then it will receive the handover of the site. It is expected that in June, District 3 will complete this work and hand over the site,” Vịnh said.
The main contract package of Metro Line 2 is expected to commence construction in 2025 and complete in 2030.
