Seoul Metro to build Da Nang's first railway system

Seoul Metro CEO Kim Tae-ho, left, shakes hands with Le Van Trung, director of Da Nang's Department of Transport, at the People's Committee office in Da Nang, Wednesday, after signing a memorandum of agreement allowing the Seoul subway operator and Korean construction firms to start planning the Vietnamese city's first urban railway system. / Courtesy of Seoul Metro

By Lee Suh-yoon

A Seoul subway operator has been placed in the driver's seat for the construction of the first urban railway system in Da Nang, a tourist destination on Vietnam's east coast.

Seoul Metro, the operator of Seoul's subway lines 1 through 8, signed a special memorandum of agreement with the People's Committee of Vietnam at the committee's regional office in Da Nang, Wednesday.

The agreement is a follow-up to a memorandum of understanding made between the two parties in January last year. Representatives from Korean construction firms that will partake in this civil works project ― Lotte Engineering & Construction and Saman ― and Dang Viet Dung, vice chairperson of the committee's regional office, were present at the signing ceremony.

"With a public-private partnership, and the participation from Korean construction firms that are a part of the project's consortium, we will try our best to realize Da Nang's first urban railway system,"Seoul Metro CEO Kim Tae-ho said in a press statement, Thursday. "We hope this signing ceremony can become the foundation for the project."

Under this agreement, Seoul Metro and Da Nang City will conduct preliminary feasibility tests for the project and use the results to draw up specific subway line plans and public-private operation models.

Seoul Metro also provided consultation services for Ho Chi Minh City's railway system in 2015 and 2017.

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