The immediate story that can be compared is Metro No. 1 project (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) nearly 20km long, completed after 17 years of approval. With a construction period of 12 years, on August 28, 2012, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held a groundbreaking ceremony for Metro Line 1, on December 22, 2024, officially operating commercially.
12 years for a metro line is less than 20 km, so is it an ambition to surpass the practical capabilities of 7 metro lines with 355 km completed in 10 years?
Another comparison is Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) approved in 2010 with an initial total investment of about VND26,000 billion and adjusted to nearly VND47,900 billion in 2019.
It is worth mentioning that up to now, Metro Line 2 has not been able to start construction.
So, the problem is not to set goals, but to consider implementation capacity, otherwise it will disappoint the people. To achieve this big goal, Ho Chi Minh City must make a breakthrough in implementing the metro project, following the old-fashioned approach that will repeat the existing problems as before.
In June 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) had a working trip to learn from the experience of urban railway development in China. The working group drew many lessons from China to study and advise Ho Chi Minh City to complete the Project to develop the Ho Chi Minh City urban railway system by 2035 and the planning and investment in the development of urban railways in the city.
Learning about China - the world's leading country with 47 urban railway systems (281 routes) with a total length of more than 9,800km is too correct. But studying is one thing, whether he can do it or not is another matter.
Furthermore, MAUR said that from Metro Line 1, the Ho Chi Minh City urban railway industry has drawn 5 big lessons for the next routes: One is to prepare a clean site, two is to have full legal documents, three is to have a valid contract, four is to be autonomous, the year is to prepare human resources to operate the project.
Learning 5 lessons from Metro Line 1 to apply to new metro projects is not easy, it is necessary to approach new solutions.
Another lesson that should be emphasized is the capacity of leaders, managers, and operations to implement projects. It is necessary to have talented people to do big, difficult, and important things for the country.
