The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just given instructions on the implementation of Notice No. 1 dated May 30, 2025 of the Steering Committee for the Development of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Network System.
According to the direction, Ho Chi Minh City will implement a bidding mechanism for bidding packages in Metro No. 2 project, initially consulting packages. The appointment of this contractor must fully comply with legal procedures, ensuring publicity, transparency and cost efficiency according to authority.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee emphasized that the pilot implementation of this mechanism at Metro Line 2 is not only to speed up progress but also to learn from experience, as a premise for application in the next metro lines in the future.
According to Resolution 188 of the National Assembly, Ho Chi Minh City is allowed to apply the forms of bidding designation for consulting contractors, non-consultants and EPC contractors at urban railway projects.
According to the plan of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Metro Line 2 project will be issued an order to start construction at the end of 2025.
However, according to the latest report of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR), a series of important tasks are being delayed.
MAUR said that the adjustment of the volume and package prices of some consulting contracts in the project was expected to be completed on March 22, 2025, but by May 30, 2025, it was still not completed - 69 days late compared to the deadline assigned by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
Similarly, the procedures for approving additional contractor selection plans include: Consulting on the preparation of the adjusted feasibility study report, FEED design and bidding; the bidding package for the consulting on the appraisal of reports; general legal consultation for the project; construction survey supervision consultation is also 61 days behind schedule.
The appraisal of the bidding package's estimate dossier "Consulting on the preparation of the feasibility study report for adjustment, FEED design and bidding" was 51 days behind schedule.
Proposing specific mechanisms, especially according to Resolution 188 of the National Assembly, along with detailed implementation progress and orientation for appointing consultants and EPC contractors for Metro Line 2 that were expected to be completed before March 31, 2025, but have not yet been completed.
The project has not yet completed procedures related to stopping the use of ODA capital and foreign preferential loans.
In that context, the latest direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on the mechanism for appointing contractors is expected to create a breakthrough, remove obstacles and speed up the implementation of Metro Line 2.
Metro No. 2 project was approved in 2010 with an initial total investment of about 1.3 billion USD (equivalent to 26,000 billion VND). By 2019, after adjustment, the total investment had increased to more than 2 billion USD (equivalent to 47,900 billion VND).
With a length of more than 11km, Metro Line 2 plays a particularly important role in connecting the central area of Ho Chi Minh City with the Northwest direction, while contributing to relieving traffic pressure on many key routes such as Cach Mang Thang Tam, Truong Chinh, Cong Hoa...
This is the second metro line of Ho Chi Minh City, after Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) which was officially put into commercial operation at the end of 2024.
