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), up to now, a series of important tasks are behind schedule.
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 No. 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.
MAUR said that the above issues have been reported to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and consulted with relevant departments and branches. To speed up the progress, MAUR recommends that the Department of Finance and the Department of Construction promptly give opinions, synthesize and advise the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
Another major bottleneck that puts Metro Line 2 at risk of missing the deadline is the failure to complete procedures to stop using ODA capital and foreign preferential loans.
Loans from 3 international partners including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the German reconstruction Bank (KfW), and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have all expired due to the project's progress being delayed for many years.
Therefore, it is necessary to carry out procedures to stop using ODA capital and foreign preferential loans for the project, and at the same time adjust it to use public investment capital to implement according to Resolution No. 188 of the National Assembly.
According to the roadmap set by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, important milestones for the Metro No. 2 project in 2025 include: completing the survey and completing the overall design (FEED) in June; appraisal of the pre-feasibility study report in August and submitting it to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for approval in September.
The contractor selection work is expected to take place in October to officially start construction in December. However, with the current situation, the risk of progress failure is very clear.
Metro No. 2 is over 11km long, running through 6 districts: 1, 3, 10, 12, Tan Binh, Tan Phu, playing a role in connecting the central area of Ho Chi Minh City with the Northwest direction, contributing to relieving traffic pressure on key axes such as Cach Mang Thang Tam, Truong Chinh, Cong Hoa...
The 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 capital increased to more than 2 billion USD (equivalent to 47,900 billion VND).
This is the second metro line of Ho Chi Minh City after Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) which was put into commercial operation at the end of 2024.
