The shift is a response to hard limits above ground. The capital’s core is straining under traffic, parking shortages and overloaded utilities, and in historic central wards such as Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da and Hai Ba Trung there is almost no land left for large infrastructure.
Under the new plan, underground space will no longer be a scatter of disconnected basements but a single integrated system, knitted into existing centers, transit-oriented development zones and the metro network, with major underground hubs linked by strategic tunnels. The idea is a city that works vertically rather than one that simply spreads.
Development is sorted into four depth tiers, each with a defined job. The top layer, from 0 to 15 m, handles daily life: pedestrian walkways, underground parking, utility lines, shopping space and the connections to metro stations, which makes it the most commercially valuable level. From 15 to 30 m sits the technical and strategic layer, with deep metro lines, disaster-prevention systems, energy and strategic-material reserves, and facilities needing tight climate control. The 30 to 50 m band is reserved for core infrastructure: large groundwater reservoirs, key utility corridors and defense and security installations. Everything below 50 m is locked away as a strictly protected reserve, untouched within this planning horizon.
The metro is the backbone of the whole scheme. Stations become three-dimensional complexes, and within a 500 m radius a resident could move, shop and park entirely underground without surfacing. Hanoi plans “Super Hub” complexes at major interchanges including Ngoc Hoi, Yen Vien and Tay Thang Long, designed as underground “city lobbies” linking high-speed rail, metro and commercial streets.
The plan also splits the city along the Red River. To the south, the focus is underground transport and large-scale parking tied together by utility tunnels. To the north, priority goes to underground transit concourses, shopping streets and reserved space for cross-river tunnels. Long Bien and Gia Lam are slated for a “smart” model that fuses infrastructure with data centers and city-management systems, while the satellite belt of Son Tay, Hoa Lac, Xuan Mai and Phu Xuyen will host underground parking and technical networks serving high-tech parks and computing facilities. Construction will be restricted or banned outright at heritage sites, on weak ground and in protected security zones.
Shoppers at an underground shopping mall in Hanoi. Photo by Read/Hoang Phong |
Underground development has been adopted by major cities in Asia and around the world. Singapore has spent years moving logistics, fuel storage and data centers underground to free its scarce surface for housing and greenery, Tokyo runs vast underground reservoirs to manage flooding, and cities from Helsinki to Montreal have formalized underground development into dedicated master plans.
The rollout runs in four phases. From 2026 to 2035, the city will build the legal framework, management tools and overall design. Between 2035 and 2045, it aims for underground works to make up at least 20% of construction land in the central area. By the 2045-2065 phase that share is projected to reach 35-40%, alongside heavy growth in commercial, logistics and parking uses. After 2065, the focus turns to running and optimizing the system digitally, completing what planners call a full “second urban layer” beneath the ground.
The underground vision is one piece of the Hanoi Capital Master Plan, a 100-year blueprint approved by the Hanoi People’s Council on Jan. 27 that sets the city’s strategy out past 2085.
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