On March 26, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued a plan to deploy investment in 355km of metro within 10 years, implemented according to Resolution 188 of the National Assembly on piloting specific mechanisms and policies to develop the urban railway system in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In particular, the city aims to complete the procedures soon to start Metro Line 2. According to the plan, by June 2025, the survey, overall design (FEED) and feasibility study documents will be completed.
The pre-feasibility study report will be appraised in August 2025 and submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for approval in September 2025.
The selection of the construction contractor will take place in October 2025, before the official start of construction order is issued in December 2025.
Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) has issued a document recommending the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to invite representatives from relevant ministries and branches to participate in the appraisal team to select foreign consulting contractors and EPC contractors ( design, construction, equipment supply) for Metro Line 2.
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-counselors and EPC contractors.
MAUR determined that to speed up progress, some important packages such as the preparation of the adjusted Feasibility Study Report, Overall Technical Design (FEED) and bidding... need to prioritize the use of foreign consulting and domestic consulting consortia.
However, according to regulations, the use of foreign contractors requires the participation of representatives of the Ministries of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, the Government Inspectorate and the State Audit in the appraisal team.
Therefore, MAUR recommends that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee send documents inviting these ministries to participate in March 2025 to promptly appraise the bidding packages according to the plan.
It is expected that the consulting packages will begin the process of preparing documents, reviewing and appraising from the end of March 2025.
The selection and mobilization of consultants will be carried out in May 2025. The appraisal and approval of project adjustments are expected to be completed in the early fourth quarter of 2025, after which, an EPC contractor will be quickly selected.
According to MAUR's plan, the project investment preparation procedures will be completed by the end of 2025. On December 20, 2025, Ho Chi Minh City will start construction of the initial infrastructure construction package at Tham Luong Depot. By April 2026, the EPC package for the entire project will be implemented.
The Metro No. 2 project has a construction period of about 4.5 years, expected to be completed in October 2030 and put into operation by the end of 2030.
Metro Line 2 was approved in 2010 with an initial total investment of 1.3 billion USD (about 26,000 billion VND). The route is more than 11km long, running through 6 districts: 1, 3, 10, 12, Tan Binh, Tan Phu.
By 2019, the total investment was adjusted to more than 2 billion USD (equivalent to VND47,900 billion), of which ODA loans accounted for the majority, about VND37,487 billion, from three main donors: Asian Development Bank (ADB), German Construction Bank (KfW) and European Investment Bank (EIB).
The project's slow implementation has led to changes in the arrangement of ODA loans for the project compared to the original plan due to investors adjusting the conditions and funding process.
After the working session with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, sponsors (ADB, KfW, EIB) agreed not to continue sponsoring the CS2B package and the entire Metro No. 2 project.
Ho Chi Minh City also decided to transfer all capital for Metro No. 2 from ODA loans to use state budget capital to continue implementing the project.
