Monorail to connect HCMC to Highway 1

Japanese experts this week will submit to Vietnamese authorities a feasibility study for a $474 million project to build a monorail that would connect central Ho Chi Minh City to the North-South Highway on the city's outskirts. The study, prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), plans for the monorail to follow the same route as JICA's proposed Railway 4. A HCMC official said local authorities might ask Japan for soft loans to cover 85% pf the investment for the project. If the plan proceeds, work on the monorail is expected to begin in 2009 and be completed by 2013, able to transport between 20,000-30,000 people an hour. (Saigon Daily Times, March 10, Vietnamese Panorama, Vietnam News Briefs, March 11).