Ho Chi Minh City to break ground on $3.7B metro and expressway to Long Thanh airport this month

The construction blitz is centered on connecting Vietnam’s largest city to Long Thanh International Airport, a $16-billion mega-hub in neighboring Dong Nai Province expected to begin operations in late 2026.

Two of the headline projects, a new metro line and a four-lane expressway, are designed to feed directly into the airport corridor.

The Ben Thanh-Thu Thiem metro line, a 6.2-km fully underground section with six stations, will run from Ben Thanh station in the city center along the Ham Nghi axis, cross the Saigon River into the Thu Thiem new urban area, and continue along Mai Chi Tho Road to its terminal station.

The line has a total investment of VND46.295 trillion ($1.76 billion), with Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment JSC, a subsidiary of conglomerate Thaco, as the investor under a public-private partnership.

The section forms part of Metro Line 2, a 62-km network that will eventually stretch from Thu Thiem to the northwest Cu Chi urban area.

Another section, the 11.3-km Ben Thanh-Tham Luong segment, broke ground on Jan. 15 with a separate investment of VND55 trillion.

Both sections target completion by 2030, contributing to the city’s goal of building 187 km of urban rail within the next five years, a target that would require constructing new metro capacity at a pace few cities in the world have attempted.

Once operational, the Ben Thanh-Thu Thiem line will link to a planned Thu Thiem-Long Thanh railway, forming a continuous rail corridor from Ho Chi Minh City’s center to the new airport.

The second headline project, the Ho Tram-Long Thanh Airport expressway, spans over 42 km with a design speed of 100-120 kph. The four-lane road has a total investment of approximately VND51 trillion ($1.94 billion), with Masterise as the investor.

The expressway will connect the Ho Tram beach resort area in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province directly to the airport, while also improving access to industrial zones and seaports in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai. Both transport projects are being implemented as public-private partnerships under build-transfer contracts.

The port projects breaking ground the same day are even larger in scale. The Can Gio international transshipment port, the most ambitious of the three, has a total investment of VND128.9 trillion ($4.9 billion). The facility will feature a 7-km berth spread across 571 hectares and is designed to handle vessels up to 250,000 deadweight tonnage. By 2030, Phase 1 is expected to reach a capacity of 4.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units per year, positioning it as a major container hub for southern Vietnam.

The Cai Mep Ha general and container port, with an investment of over VND50.8 trillion ($1.93 billion), will be built on a 351-hectare site with a projected capacity of 10.8 million TEUs per year upon full completion. Phase 2 of the Cai Mep Gemadept-Terminal Link port, valued at VND13.8 trillion ($525 million), rounds out the maritime investments.

Beyond transport and ports, the city will also launch construction on a new administrative center and landscaped park at Thu Thiem’s central lake, with an investment of VND30.8 trillion ($1.17 billion), as well as the redevelopment of the Nha Rong-Khanh Hoi port area and expansion of the Ho Chi Minh Museum complex, at over VND20 trillion ($760 million).

Several schools are also slated for groundbreaking, including Hung Vuong Specialized High School and a second campus for the HCMC College of Economics and Technology.

The April 30 date coincides with the 51st anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam.