The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction has just sent a report to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on bidding and ordering of bus routes with funding support in the city.
According to the Department of Construction, after the merger, Ho Chi Minh City currently has 179 bus routes, including 108 routes with funding support and 71 routes without subsidies, with the participation of 42 transport units.
The total number of vehicles operating on the bus routes is 2,319 vehicles, of which 57% are under 5 years old.
Notably, the city currently has 47 electric bus routes with 627 vehicles and 18 bus routes using CNG fuel with 449 vehicles. The rate of environmentally friendly fuel-powered vehicles accounts for 46.4% of the city's bus congestion.
In 2025, the Department of Construction successfully organized bidding for 62 bus routes with funding support, bringing the total number of routes to 101/108, reaching a rate of 93.5%.
It is expected that the remaining 7 routes will complete bidding procedures in 2026, after the end of the loan interest support period according to the vehicle investment project approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
The budget for supporting public passenger transport by bus in 2025 is 1,808 billion VND. It is estimated that by the end of the year, the disbursement rate will reach about 82.6%.
The reason is that thanks to bidding, the city has saved more than 216 billion VND for budget expenditure in 2025.
According to the Department of Construction, the bidding results of 37 routes in phase 1 in 2025 and 39 routes from previous years showed an average discount rate of about 54% compared to the approved package price, thereby significantly reducing the budget expenditure estimate.
In the 13 packages for phase 2 in 2025 (including 25 bus routes), many contractors have offered very low winning bids, below 50% of the package price.
In the bidding round on November 17, 2025, there were 7 bid packages with the participation of 2 contractors, in which Vinbus Eco-T transportation Services Co., Ltd. had an average discount of up to 80.1%.
The next bidding round on November 24, 2025 includes 6 bid packages, each package has 2 to 4 participating contractors, recording the highest discount belonging to Phuong Trang Passenger Transport Joint Stock Company (Futabuslines) with an average discount rate of up to 99.99%.
In response to the deep discounts, the Public Transport Management Center (under the Department of Construction) has asked contractors to clarify their financial capacity. After the contractor issued a written explanation, the contractor selection results were approved in accordance with regulations.
According to the results of the contract negotiation, the winning routes all used new purchased vehicles, expected to start operating from March 1, 2026. Currently, relevant units are signing contracts for implementation.
The Department of Construction said that in 2026, it will continue to complete bidding procedures for the remaining 7 bus routes, and organize bidding for 37 routes with existing contracts that will expire on December 31, 2026.
