HANOI, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern economic hub, has started construction of its first metro with a total investment of 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Friday.

    The 19.7- km route, with 2.6 km underground and 17.1 km above, will link the city's downtown with its District No. 9. It is scheduled to become operational by 2014.

    Of the investment, nearly 905 million dollars comes from Japan's official development assistance and the rest from the city's budget.

    The metro route will help ease traffic congestion and boost socio-economic development, said the report.

    The Transport Ministry will work with the city and neighboring provinces to develop a mass rapid transit system in the region.

    Each metro operating on the route will serve 162,000 passengers a day between 2014 and 2020, and 630,000 by 2030. The entire trip will take around 29 minutes, and there will be a metro every five minutes for 20 hours a day.