The first metro line in HCM City is scheduled to be put into commercial operations by December.
The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) launched the Fifty Days and Nights to Complete Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien) campaign on October 28. The company aims to begin commercial operations by December 22.
The move came following directions from the city government to get the line operating by the end of this year after several delays.
Speaking at the event, the head of MAUR, Phan Cong Bang, stated they would work with Metro Line 1 Co., Ltd. until December 20 to complete a large, complex workload and address unresolved issues.
Bang stressed, "All relevant units will work without a day off during the campaign to ensure its success. "
HCM City authorities have started a two-month trial run for the metro line since October 1.
MAUR added that the line would run 200 trips between 5 am and 10 pm during the first six months of commercial operation.
After that, the line will operate from 5 am to 11 pm, with 276 trips daily between Monday and Friday. On weekends and holidays, the number of trips will fall to 226.
Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railways 1 Company, the operator, said that passengers will be offered free travel during the first three months of commercial operation. Then, passengers would pay VND12,000 and VND18,000 for their trips based on the distance between 5 and 20 km. One-day tickets will cost VND40,000, three-day tickets cost VND90,000, and monthly tickets VND260,000.
The 19.70-kilometre-long metro line project, which started construction in 2012 at a total cost of VND43.70 trillion (USD1.77 billion), will run through District 1, Binh Thanh District, and Thu Duc City.
The trains are designed to run up to 110 kilometres per hour above ground and 80 kilometres underground.
The line was scheduled for operation in 2017 but has been delayed three times.