Japan to send experts for monorail project

Ngày đăng: 07:22:05 03-04-2017

A Japanese group is expected to give technical assistance to a 20-km monorail project in Ho Chi Minh City, experts said.

The Marubeni‑Hitachi group will send experts to Ho Chi Minh City in September to conduct a feasibility study for a monorail system, said Hideo Inoue, director of the Overseas Monorail Hitachi Project Centre.

Speaking at a seminar held on August 23, 2004 on urban transport in Ho Chi Minh City, Inoue said the feasibility study will be submitted to the city authority for consideration in February 2005.

Japanese experts said a monorail could carry from 20,000 to 30,000 passengers per hour, and be safer and more comfortable than a subway.

A monorail depot would cover an area only one‑fifth the size of one needed for a metro station, he said.

Inoue said construction cost for a monorail would be two‑thirds that for a metro system of the same length and with the same passenger capacity.

Construction cost for the 20‑km monorail would be US $600 million, he said.

The Marubeni‑Hitachi group said the Vietnamese Government could ask the Japanese Government for a concessional loan to cover 85% of the investment for the project.

The Vietnamese Government will pay the remaining 15% of the investment that would cover taxes and site clearance compensation.

During the seminar, Nguyen Van Dua, deputy chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said public passenger transport services now meet only five percent of the demand for transport in Ho Chi Minh City.

The city has focused on the expansion of bus services, but Mr Dua said in the next few years Ho Chi Minh City will invest in metro and monorail systems.

Reporter (www.nhandan.com.vn)