Urgent metro construction connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Long Thanh airport

A series of connecting routes are still being discussed.

The joint venture of investors DonaCoop Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company and VinaCapital Group has just officially proposed to the People's Committee of Dong Nai province a route plan for the project to extend the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line to Tran Bien - Long Thanh International Airport and develop the TOD urban model in the form of public-private partnership (PPP).

Ho Chi Minh City's metro line No. 1 will be extended to Dong Nai, connecting directly to Long Thanh airport.

PHOTO: NHAT THINH

According to the representative of the consulting unit Tedi South, the project has a total length of about 38.5 km, expected to include 3 sections: the route from station S0 to the new administrative center of Dong Nai province (Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park) about 6.5 km; the route from the new administrative center of Dong Nai province to the central axis of Bien Hoa city (old) about 5 km; and the route from the new administrative center of Dong Nai province to Long Thanh airport about 27 km. The joint venture of investors expects the project to have a total investment of about 65,000 billion VND, not including site clearance costs (carried out by the state).

According to Tedi South representative, Metro Line 1 extending to Long Thanh airport has 2 sections under consideration for investment proposals. In particular, for the section passing through the defense land of Brigade 972 (Department of Motorbikes - Transport, General Department of Logistics - Engineering, Long Hung Ward, Dong Nai Province), the consulting unit proposed 2 route options including: cutting across the military land (about 2 km long and in accordance with the Project of Adjusting the General Planning of Bien Hoa City to 2045 which is being submitted for appraisal) and going around this land (with a route length of more than 4 km). For the final section of the route, because Long Thanh airport does not have land fund to arrange additional route corridors, to connect to Long Thanh airport, the route is expected to connect with the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway line outside the airport.

The consulting unit proposed 3 options with 3 routes, corresponding to different lengths and recommended choosing the shortest option with low construction investment costs. However, this option has a section passing through military land belonging to the route connecting to Long Thanh airport. Therefore, Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee requested the investor to coordinate with the Department of Construction to complete the document advising the Provincial People's Committee to work with the Ministry of National Defense .

In fact, a week ago, at a meeting with the investor consortium, Vice Chairman of Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha assessed that the preparation of investment documents for the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line extension project to Long Thanh airport was still slow. Due to the urgent nature of the project, Mr. Ha requested the investor consortium to closely coordinate with Dong Nai Department of Construction to rebuild the plan and shorten the implementation time. The task is to submit the project documents to the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee in September.

The extension of Metro Line 1 is just one of four planned railway lines connecting Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh Airport. According to the plan, both Metro Lines 2 and 6 of Ho Chi Minh City will connect to Tan Son Nhat Airport, then connect to the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway at Thu Thiem Station and at the Phu Huu intersection area, respectively.

It can be seen that the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh light rail line is a "nail" project, serving high-speed passenger transport from the center of Ho Chi Minh City to the airport, with an estimated travel time of only about 20 - 25 minutes, synchronously connected to the metro network. With such an important meaning, as soon as the Long Thanh airport project was launched, the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway began to be studied. Since 2019, the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) has assigned the Railway Project Management Board to prepare a pre-feasibility study report, but due to many problems, the report will not be completed until 2024.

To ensure the project is implemented quickly and synchronously, the Ministry of Construction has so far submitted to the Government twice a plan to assign Ho Chi Minh City to take the lead in building this railway line, which has not yet been approved. If approved this year, combined with a special and unique mechanism system applied, under the most favorable construction conditions, the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh railway will start construction at the end of 2026 and will not be completed until 2029.

Fear of serious impact on the efficiency of exploiting super airports

Experts affirm that in the story of effectively exploiting Long Thanh International Airport, the connecting transport system plays a decisive role. One advantage is that instead of being stuck in the capital problem as before, all four railway projects mentioned above have had private enterprises (DN) propose to participate as EPC general contractors or direct investors. This is the result of the "four pillar resolutions" that were born to absolutely support the participation of private enterprises in key national projects, along with the special mechanisms on railways in the Railway Law and Resolution 188 of the National Assembly "opening the door wide" for the private sector to build railways. Therefore, the leaders of Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City are urging specialized agencies to quickly agree on plans with investors, deploying procedural steps to soon start construction of the projects.

Most enterprises have committed to building within only 2-4 years/route if the proposal is approved, this is a record time. However, normally, preparation work such as project establishment, design, site clearance, relocation of technical infrastructure, selection of consultants, and construction contractors will also take about 1-2 years. That means, if Long Thanh airport follows the Government's instructions to be inaugurated this year and put into operation in early 2026, it will be 4-5 years at the earliest before there will be a railway connecting to the center of Ho Chi Minh City.

Prof. Dr. Vo Xuan Vinh, Director of the Institute of Business Research (University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City), expressed regret that the railway connection projects had only begun to start when Long Thanh airport was about to be put into operation. According to him, many countries in the world also developed airports far from the city or a city maintained two large airports. However, the key is the traffic connection that the metro and bus network must have. Most of the airports located far from the city center such as Narita (Japan), Incheon (Korea), Charles De Gaulle (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands) ... have developed a synchronous transport system with convenient and fast multi-modal connections. In particular, railway connection plays an extremely important role in providing a fast, convenient, reliable connection method (no traffic jams like roads), transporting large quantities at low cost.

"At this time, when the airport is about to operate, but the roads are still unfinished and there is no railway line, it is too difficult. The central government and the two localities need to act quickly, possibly issue special mechanisms, especially shortening procedures as much as possible, taking advantage of the ability to rapidly deploy projects of the private sector to soon complete connecting railway lines. If traveling between the airport and the city center is too difficult, time-consuming or costly, passengers and staff will hesitate to use the new airport," Professor Vo Xuan Vinh suggested.