Two of Vietnam’s largest property conglomerates, Vingroup and T&T, are set to conduct feasibility studies for three metro lines planned for Hanoi under a proposal that has been submitted to the city government, VN Express International reported. The two homebuilders revealed that they won’t charge the government if their studies are rejected.
Hanoi has plans to build eight metro lines by 2030, but work has only started on the first two. Vingroup and T&T are expected to bid on the three lines they offered to conduct the feasibility studies on. Vingroup will study two routes stretching 38.4 kilometres and 5.9 kilometres that traverse the city centre and western suburbs. T&T’s study will look into a line that extends 54 kilometres and will be located in Hanoi’s northern and eastern districts.
Should they be selected as the main investors for the respective the Hanoi metro lines the firms bid on, the companies will add the costs of the studies to the total investment total of the projects. If their bid isn’t picked, they will submit the studies to the winning investors free of charge.
Currently only Vingroup and T&T have expressed an interest in the proposed metro lines that were put forward for private investment in 2016. The government hopes the project will be completed by 2025.
For Vingroup, this would be the firm’s second major infrastructure contribution in Vietnam. The developer agreed to invest VND 100 trillion into a railway project last year. This happened during a conference in Vietnam where the government wanted to generate funds to inject into improving infrastructure by recruiting private sector firms to contribute.
The investment would be a welcome addition as Vietnam continues to struggle with gridlock. The Ministry of Planning and Investment forecasts that the country needs 1,380 kilometres of highway and a total investment of USD 480 billion for infrastructure projects across the country.