The proposal is stated in a report sent to the Steering Committee for the Development of the Urban Railway System on tasks and solutions for the last 3 months of 2025.
Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee directed and the Department of Home Affairs issued Document No. 1782/TTr-SNV dated August 6, 2025, proposing 2 options for organizing investment, managing, operating and exploiting metro in accordance with the context, model and new development vision of the City.
Option 1 (optional): Establish an urban railway Corporation according to the corporate enterprise model, with Ho Chi Minh City holding 100% of the charter capital.
Pursuant to Resolution No. 188/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly and the Urban Railway Development Project according to Conclusion No. 49-KL/TW of the Politburo, the Urban Railway Corporation will have 4 main functions: capital mobilization; construction investment management; operation - maintenance; multi-industry business to effectively exploit assets.
Option 2 (currently applied): Maintain the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board according to the model of a public service unit, taking on the role of investor; at the same time, maintain Urban Railway Company Limited No. 1 according to the enterprise model, in charge of receiving, operating and maintaining.
According to the assessment, the Urban Railway Management Board only assumes the function of an investor in managing the investment, construction, exploitation and operation of the metro system of Ho Chi Minh City.
Urban Railway Company No. 1 is responsible for preparing the necessary conditions for management, operation and maintenance when the project is handed over, and directly managing and exploiting metro lines.
According to the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in Official Dispatch No. 93/UBND-VX dated July 8, 2025 on the arrangement of Project Management Boards and related units, the Urban Railway Management Board will be subject to rearrangement in phase 2.
The Department of Construction said that after analyzing the advantages and disadvantages, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee assessed that Option 1 has more advantages, and is also in line with the trend of metro organization and management in many countries around the world.
On that basis, the Department of Construction proposed that the Steering Committee agree on the policy of establishing an Urban Railway Corporation with 100% charter capital held by Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee was assigned to direct the development of a Project to establish an Urban Railway Corporation, ensuring compliance with functions and tasks and submitting it to the competent authority for consideration and approval.
According to the plan approved by the Prime Minister, the urban railway network (metro) of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger will have a total length of about 1,012 km.
Of which, Ho Chi Minh City before the merger had 12 routes about 582 km long; Binh Duong before the merger had 12 routes about 305 km long; Ba Ria - Vung Tau before the merger had 3 routes about 125 km long.
From now until 2035, the Department of Construction proposed to prioritize the implementation of 10 metro and railway lines, applying a special mechanism, especially Resolution 188 to speed up implementation.
