Thousands of Ho Chi Minh City residents crowded to take selfies in train cars on Sunday, as the traffic-clogged commercial hub celebrated the opening of its first-ever metro line after years of delays.
Huge queues stretched from every station along the $1.7 billion line that extends roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city center — with women dressed in traditional Ao Dai clothing, uniformed soldiers, and couples clutching young children waiting excitedly. To board the plane.
“I know (the project) is delayed, but I still feel honored and honored to be among the first in this metro,” employee Nguyen Nhu Huyen said after taking a selfie in the crowded train car.
She added: “Our city is now on par with other major cities in the world.”
It has taken 17 years for Vietnam’s commercial capital to reach this point. The project, which was largely financed by Japanese government loans, was first approved in 2007 and is scheduled to cost just $668 million.
When construction began in 2012, authorities promised the line would be operational within five years.
But as delays mounted, the numbers of cars and motorcycles in the city of nine million people multiplied, making it extremely congested, increasingly polluted and time-consuming to get around.
Deputy Mayor Bui Xuan Kwong said the metro “meets the growing travel needs of residents and contributes to reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution.”
Kwong admitted that authorities had to overcome “countless obstacles” to complete the project.
Back on the train, Vu Thanh, an 84-year-old war veteran, told Agence France-Presse that he was happy to experience working underground in a more positive way after spending three years fighting American forces in the city’s famous Cu Chi Tunnels, huge underground tunnels. the earth. network.
“It’s a completely different feeling from the secret experience I had years ago during the war. It’s very bright and nice here,” he said.
With only 14 stops, the line’s “impact in relieving traffic will be limited in the short term,” warned Professor Vo Minh Hoang of Fulbright University in Vietnam.
But he told AFP that this was still a “historic achievement for urban development in the city.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AFP__20241222__36R83VC__v1__HighRes__VietnamTransportMetro-1734867740.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440
Source link