The construction of urban rail transit in Hanoi is about to usher in a historic breakthrough moment. On October 15, 2026, the Hanoi Metro Management Committee and Vinhomes SGC consortium officially signed a general contracting contract, and five new subway lines were simultaneously launched for construction, with a total investment of nearly 90 trillion Vietnamese dong, about 34.8 billion US dollars. This is the largest urban rail transit construction project in Southeast Asia in recent years, directly pushing Hanoi's urban expansion process onto a new fast lane.

Five lines synchronously land and connect the core nodes of the city

This general contracting contract covers Hanoi Metro Line 1, Line 2, Line 8, Line 10, and Line 14. The service scope includes design equipment supply, installation, construction, and final delivery. The announced investment amount does not involve land acquisition and site clearance related costs. The project clearly requires the completion and operation of all five lines before December 31, 2030. After the opening of the five lines, they will connect the core nodes of Hanoi's Neipai International Airport, Xiongwang International Sports Complex, Tulin Multi functional Urban Area, Times City, Guluo, and Ocean City, comprehensively connecting the major transportation hubs, economic centers, and large residential areas of the city.

After the project is put into operation, the public transportation capacity in Hanoi will be greatly improved, and the long-term road traffic congestion pressure that has plagued the city will be significantly alleviated. The development space for the city to expand outward will be further opened, and the daily commuting experience of residents will also be substantially improved, injecting sustained infrastructure power into the long-term economic growth of the Vietnamese capital. The latest plan disclosed in October 2026 shows that the total operating mileage of the five lines will exceed 200 kilometers, directly making Hanoi one of the core cities in Southeast Asia with a large-scale subway network.

The implementation of large-scale mechanized construction guarantee progress

In order to ensure the goal of opening to traffic by the end of 2030, the Vinhomes SGC consortium has prepared the world's leading large-scale professional construction equipment, deploying over 100 shield tunneling machines (TBMs) and more than 50 sets of underground wall excavation equipment. At the same time, thousands of transport vehicles are mobilized to synchronously transport the earthwork and engineering materials generated by tunnel excavation, meeting the high-intensity needs of dozens of construction sites carrying out operations simultaneously.

At present, the consortium has collaborated with top consulting firms from China, Japan, South Korea, and Europe to simultaneously advance detailed design work, while introducing international contractors with rich experience in TBM tunnel construction to participate in project implementation. Chinese rail transit companies will play a core supporting role in large-scale tunnel construction. Previously, Vinhomes had signed a contract with global rail transit company Alstom to provide 200 Metropolis series next-generation trains for five lines, all of which will be composed of five carriages, achieving comprehensive optimization in passenger capacity, operational efficiency, and safety standards. The simultaneous construction scale of 100 shield tunneling machines this time will also make the project one of the world's largest synchronized mechanized subway tunnel projects. Keywords: Vietnam Metro, Infrastructure Transportation

Hundreds of shield tunneling machines are about to start synchronously excavating underground in Hanoi, a Southeast Asian city whose rail transit network is rapidly taking shape at an unprecedented speed.Editor/Cheng Liting