Construction site of the Thủ Thiêm 2 Bridge connecting HCM City’s District 1 and Thủ Đức City. — VNA/VNS Photo Mạnh Linh

 HCM CITY — Construction of seven urgent projects in HCM City, including key traffic projects, have been licensed to continue working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The municipal People’s Committee deputy chairman Lê Hòa Bình on Wednesday (August 18) approved a proposal by the city’s Department of Construction to resume the construction works to ensure completion as scheduled.

The projects include construction works serving pandemic prevention and control.

The Metro Line No.1 project between Bến Thành Market in District 1 and Suối Tiên Theme Park in Thủ Đức city, construction of which began in 2012, is expected to officially open for use next year.

Construction work will also continue on Thủ Thiêm 2 Bridge over the Sài Gòn River linking District 1 and Thủ Đức City. It is around 70 per cent complete and is scheduled to open to traffic in the second quarter of next year.

It will improve connectivity between downtown and Thủ Thiêm, and boost the development of the city’s eastern innovative urban area.

The city will also resume building an overpass in front of the new Miền Đông (Eastern) Bus Station on Hà Nội Highway in Thủ Đức city.

A project to build technical infrastructure will continue on nine land plots, covering 77,600 square metres, in the Thủ Thiêm new urban area in Thủ Đức city. Under the project, six land plots are planned as residential areas, while the remaining are for commercial areas. 

Construction of a double tunnel below Nguyễn Văn Linh Boulevard at its intersection with Nguyễn Hữu Thọ Street in District 7 is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year.

It will reduce the severe congestion and accidents that plague the intersection because of the huge number of vehicles, particularly container trucks, that travel on Nguyễn Văn Linh Boulevard daily.

Construction of a cardiology centre, neonatology centre and a building for health examinations and surgery at HCM City Paediatrics Hospital 1 will be completed by the end of this year, meeting the increasing number of patients.

The committee has asked the Police Department, in collaboration with relevant departments and agencies, to create favourable conditions for units to implement the projects.

The city had previously required non-urgent construction projects to suspend operation under social distancing regulations amid the COVID-19 outbreak. — VNS