Ben Thanh – Can Gio Metro: Full-Scale Construction From 30 October 2026 — 54 km, VND 102.4 Trillion, Target December 2029, and What It Means for Can Gio Property
Short answer: On 24 October 2026, VinSpeed — Vingroup’s high-speed-rail company and the project’s investor — notified the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee that it will start full-scale, simultaneous construction of the Ben Thanh – Can Gio railway on 30 October 2026: the line itself (tunnel and viaduct), Ben Thanh station, Can Gio station, the depot, the operations control centre (OCC) and the railway systems (power, communications, signalling, fare collection). The line runs 54.062 km through nine wards and communes, with about 3.3 km underground from Ben Thanh and the rest on viaduct; double track, 1,435 mm gauge, electrified; only two stations in phase 1. The preliminary budget is VND 102,430 billion (about USD 3.9bn at current rates), excluding roughly VND 12,784bn of state-funded land clearance. The investor expects more than three years of works and a target of December 2029 for completion and commercial operation (Tuoi Tre, 24 Oct 2026; Znews, 24 Oct 2026; VTC News/CafeF, 25 Oct 2026; Nhan Dan, 19 Dec 2025).
Realtique has compiled the investor’s notice with the city’s decisions since December 2025, and three things need reading correctly. 30 October is the start of full construction, not a ground-breaking (that ceremony took place on 19 December 2025). The operating target has moved from “2028” in the early-2026 documents to “December 2029” in the new notice. And land clearance is not finished: Binh Khanh commune, the longest section on the Can Gio side, had handed over 73% of the required area by mid-October. For anyone weighing Can Gio property — in particular apartments at Vinhomes Green Paradise, the only product line in that township a foreigner can buy — this article separates what is settled from what is still a plan, then lists what to verify before committing. It is not investment advice.
Ben Thanh – Can Gio Railway — Status as of 25 October 2026
Table of Contents
What Starts on 30 October 2026 — and How It Differs From the 19 December 2025 Ceremony
VinSpeed’s notice of 24 October lists the items that will start simultaneously on 30 October: the railway line (tunnel and viaduct), Ben Thanh station, Can Gio station, the depot, the operations control centre (OCC) and the railway systems — power supply, communications, signalling and fare collection. According to the investor, these packages have passed the construction authority’s appraisal and their feasibility studies are approved. The project is classed as a special-grade Group A work and is implemented as a direct investment by the company (Tuoi Tre, 24 Oct 2026; VTC News/CafeF, 25 Oct 2026).
The delivery team is now named: a construction consortium led by SGC Investment and Construction JSC together with Vinhomes JSC; CONINCO as supervising consultant; and a design consortium of Sun Engineering Consultants International, TECCO1 and Dorsch Consult Asia (DCA). SGC is also Vingroup’s partner on the five Hanoi urban-rail lines (VTC News/CafeF, 25 Oct 2026).
Why the distinction from 19 December 2025 matters. That day VinSpeed held the ground-breaking ceremony, attended by the city’s Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang, two weeks after the city’s decision of 5 December 2025 approving the company as investor (Nhan Dan, 19 Dec 2025). What followed was mostly paperwork: alignment and structure locations approved in May 2026, a compensation and land-recovery plan, design appraisals. 30 October is when machinery goes on site along the whole line, including the underground section in the inner city — which is why this, not the ceremony, is the milestone property owners along the route should watch. Some outlets call it a “ground-breaking”; Tuoi Tre and the investor say “simultaneous construction”, and Realtique follows the investor’s wording.
The Alignment: 54 km, Nine Wards and Communes, 3.3 km Underground, Two Phase-1 Stations
Key parameters from the 24 October notice and the approvals that preceded it:
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 54.062 km (the May 2026 approvals quoted about 53.8 km) | Tuoi Tre, VTC 24–25 Oct; VnEconomy 21 May |
| Termini | 23 September Park by Ben Thanh market (Ben Thanh ward) → a 39 ha site in Can Gio commune adjoining the Can Gio coastal tourism township | Tuoi Tre 24 Oct; Nhan Dan 19 Dec 2025 |
| Areas served | Nine wards and communes: Ben Thanh, Khanh Hoi, Xom Chieu, Tan Thuan, Tan My, Nha Be, Binh Khanh, An Thoi Dong, Can Gio | Tuoi Tre 24 Oct |
| Underground section | About 3.3 km, Km0+000 → Km3+173: TBM tunnel, cut-and-cover and U-shaped open sections; the remainder on viaduct | Tuoi Tre 24 Oct |
| River crossings | Five major waterways: Rach Dia, Soai Rap, An Nghia, Loi Giang, Dinh Ba (the May alignment also listed Ben Nghe and Don creeks) | VTC 25 Oct; VTC/CafeF 21 May |
| Technical | Double track, 1,435 mm gauge, electrified; design speed up to 350 km/h | Tuoi Tre, Znews 24 Oct; Nhan Dan 19 Dec 2025 |
| Stations | Phase 1: Ben Thanh and Can Gio only, plus one depot and one OCC in Can Gio commune; the full plan mentions six stations (intermediate ones unscheduled) | VnEconomy 21 May; VTC/CafeF 21 May |
| Journey time | About 13 minutes (Znews) to about 20 minutes (Nhan Dan) — investor and planning figures, not operating data | Znews 24 Oct; Nhan Dan 19 Dec 2025 |
Route in detail (VTC News, 25 Oct): from Ben Thanh along Ky Con street, across Ben Nghe creek to Vinh Khanh, crossing Hoang Dieu, then along the Nguyen Tat Thanh axis; near Tan Thuan 2 bridge it turns onto Nguyen Van Linh, passes the Phu My bridge interchange and crosses the Rach Dia river into Nha Be; through the Van Phat Hung resettlement area and Phu Xuan residential area, across the Soai Rap river into Binh Khanh commune; then parallel to the Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway, crossing it at about Km18+800, and along Rung Sac road through An Thoi Dong to Can Gio. The city states the alignment crosses the buffer zone of the Can Gio biosphere reserve, not its core (VTC/CafeF, 21 May 2026; VnEconomy, 21 May 2026).
The detail buyers most often miss: phase 1 has no intermediate stations. The line passes Nguyen Tat Thanh, Nguyen Van Linh and Nha Be, but in this phase it stops only at the two ends; neighbourhoods in between benefit indirectly (less road traffic), not from a station within walking distance. Names and timing for the four intermediate stations have not been announced.
Illustration: an elevated metro section in Ho Chi Minh City (not the Can Gio line) · Photo: Xuanphuocle · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
Money and Milestones: VND 102,430bn Budget, VND 12,784bn Land Clearance, and Why 2028 Became December 2029
The preliminary total investment is more than VND 102,430 billion, excluding compensation and land clearance of about VND 12,784bn (some documents round this to “about VND 13,000bn”) funded by the state budget — the investor pays for construction and equipment, the city pays for land. On structure, the latest notice says “direct investment”; VnEconomy’s May 2026 report described a build-own-operate arrangement. Realtique records both wordings so readers can check the original file if needed (Nhan Dan, 19 Dec 2025; Nguoi Do Thi, 17 Mar 2026; VnEconomy, 21 May 2026; Tuoi Tre, 24 Oct 2026).
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Dec 2025 | HCMC People’s Committee decision approving VinSpeed as investor | Nhan Dan 19 Dec 2025 |
| 19 Dec 2025 | Ground-breaking ceremony; stated target at the time: operation in 2028 | Nhan Dan 19 Dec 2025 |
| 17 Mar 2026 | Decision 1518/QD-UBND on the compensation, support and resettlement plan: ~VND 12,784bn; land handover targeted for October 2026 | Nguoi Do Thi 17 Mar 2026 |
| May 2026 | City approves alignment and structure locations; handover target November 2026, operation 2028 | VnEconomy 21 May 2026 |
| 15 Oct 2026 | Binh Khanh commune: 39.92 of 54.8 ha (73%) handed to the Management Authority for Urban Railways | Thanh Nien 15 Oct 2026 |
| 30 Oct 2026 | Simultaneous construction of tunnel, viaduct, two stations, depot and OCC | Tuoi Tre, Znews 24 Oct; VTC 25 Oct |
| Dec 2029 | Target for completion and commercial operation (more than three years of works) | Tuoi Tre 24 Oct; VTC 25 Oct |
Where did 2028 go? The early-2026 documents — ceremony, land-clearance plan, alignment approval — all read “strive to operate in 2028”. The investor’s own notice of 24 October reads “more than three years of construction, completion targeted for December 2029”. No document explains the change, but the arithmetic is simple: real construction starts on 30 October 2026, add three-plus years and you land in late 2029. For a buyer the lesson is to keep the operating date out of your cash-flow plan until the inner-city tunnel section is through — the part that has historically slipped the most, as on Line 1 and the city’s other lines.
Land Clearance So Far: Binh Khanh at 73% of Area, Rung Sac Interchange at 93%
Full-scale construction does not mean the land is clear. The most recent public figures come from the Binh Khanh commune People’s Committee’s progress review of 15 October 2026 — the commune with the longest section on the Can Gio side (Thanh Nien, 15 Oct 2026):
- Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro: 251 affected cases counted, 174 already handed over; 39.92 of 54.8 ha (about 73%) delivered to the Management Authority for Urban Railways; compensation of more than VND 1,030bn.
- Rung Sac interchange (linking the Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway with Rung Sac road; total investment close to VND 2,970bn including a grade-separated junction, bridges, ramps, a roundabout and a 760 m underpass; started 1 July 2026): 100 files with approved compensation worth over VND 430bn plus nearly VND 32bn for utility relocation; 19.86 of 21.44 ha (about 93%) handed over, 1.58 ha remaining; the commune aimed to reach 100% that day.
No ward-level figures have been published for the inner-city section (Ben Thanh, Khanh Hoi, Xom Chieu, Tan Thuan, Tan My) or Nha Be. The city’s plan targeted full handover in October 2026 (Decision 1518), later “striving for November 2026” in the May update. If the inner-city handover slips, the suburban viaduct and the Can Gio depot will run ahead — something Realtique will check against site reports after 30 October (Nguoi Do Thi, 17 Mar 2026; VnEconomy, 21 May 2026).
Graphic: Realtique · Data: Binh Khanh commune People’s Committee, progress review of 15 October 2026 (via Thanh Nien)
What Changes for Can Gio: Four Mega-Projects and Where Vinhomes Green Paradise Sits
The metro is one of four large works pulling Can Gio closer to the city centre. Realtique ranks them by actual status as of 25 October 2026:
| Project | Scale | Status | Read more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Thanh – Can Gio railway | 54 km, VND 102,430bn, two phase-1 stations | Full construction from 30 Oct 2026; target Dec 2029 | This article |
| Can Gio international transshipment port | 571 ha, VND 128,872bn | Approved mega-port; construction status covered separately | Location & infrastructure guide |
| Can Gio – Vung Tau sea crossing | Over VND 93,000bn, Vietnam’s first immersed tunnel | Construction started | Location & infrastructure guide |
| Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway + Rung Sac interchange | Expressway fully open since 1 Oct 2026; interchange VND 2,970bn | Interchange started 1 Jul 2026, land 93% cleared | Location & infrastructure guide |
Vinhomes Green Paradise — Vingroup’s roughly 2,870 ha coastal township in Can Gio — sits at the end of the line: Can Gio station is on a 39 ha site adjoining the project. That is why the metro investor and the township developer belong to the same group, and why buyers should read the metro timeline with a clear head: infrastructure built by the developer itself has a strong incentive to be finished, but its published dates are also part of the sales story. According to the developer’s mid-2026 updates, most of the site has been filled, the show village opened and the first low-rise lots were handed over; product, pricing and policy details are in the overview and the apartment guide for foreign buyers.
Four checks Realtique runs before advising a client to buy on metro news:
- Is the metro already in the price? The line has been public since 2025 and every price list in the township already assumes “13 minutes to District 1”. What is new today is a higher probability of completion, not an unknown advantage.
- Can your cash flow wait until 2029–2030? If you buy to let, tenants between 2026 and 2029 still arrive by road and the Binh Khanh ferry; underwrite rent on that reality.
- Which product, which title? In the same township, landed houses are long-term title and Vietnamese-only; apartments are what foreigners can buy (next section). Some zones carry 50-year terms — ask before comparing prices.
- Are you buying “land next to the line”? Plots and houses along Rung Sac road or in Nha Be have no station in phase 1; buying there on metro news means buying a longer expectation than the line itself.
Graphic: Realtique · Data: HCMC authorities and project investors, compiled October 2026 (metro figure excludes land clearance)
What Can Foreigners and Overseas Vietnamese Buy in Can Gio?
The first question international clients ask Realtique after every Can Gio infrastructure headline is “what am I allowed to buy?”. The current framework applies to every project in Can Gio:
- Foreign individuals: may buy apartments (and houses in commercial projects cleared for foreign sale) within the 30% cap per building, outside defence and security zones; they cannot acquire land-use rights, so villas and townhouses on land in Can Gio are off the table. At Vinhomes Green Paradise the apartment line is therefore the only option — the Department of Construction publishes the list of projects eligible for foreign sale in batches, which Realtique tracks in our guide for foreign buyers and the 30% quota explainer. For clients holding Chinese nationality, Realtique typically arranges a Long Term Lease structure; details are confirmed with your advisor.
- Overseas Vietnamese who still hold Vietnamese nationality: the same rights as residents — landed property and apartments alike, outside the 30% cap.
- People of Vietnamese origin without nationality: under the 2024 Land Law they may acquire residential land-use rights inside housing projects; the documents proving origin should be checked before any deposit.
Two practical notes: financing — developer interest-support packages are generally for Vietnamese buyers, and non-resident foreigners can rarely borrow locally; and access — until the metro runs, Can Gio remains 1.5–2 hours by road depending on the hour, via the Binh Khanh ferry or the Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway once the Rung Sac interchange opens. Weekend-home buyers should price that into how often they will actually use the place.
What to Watch After 30 October, and the Questions Still Open
Realtique will update this article at the following points:
| When | What to confirm | Why it matters to buyers |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Oct 2026 | Whether works really start that day on the inner-city tunnel as well, or only on the viaduct and depot | Tests how credible the Dec 2029 target is |
| Late Oct – Nov 2026 | 100% land handover (Decision 1518 said October; the May update said November) | Progress on the Binh Khanh, Nha Be and inner-city sections |
| 2027 | TBM drive on Km0–Km3+173; bridges over the Soai Rap, Loi Giang and Dinh Ba rivers | The tunnel is where delays usually appear |
| No date yet | Four intermediate stations; fares; interchange with Lines 1 and 2 at Ben Thanh | Mid-route neighbourhoods only gain once a station exists |
This line sits outside the five budget- and PPP-funded metro lines the city plans to break ground on in late 2026 (the Binh Duong Line 2, the Line 1 extension, Line 6, Tham Luong – An Ha and Thu Thiem – Long Thanh) — see our hub on the five HCMC metro lines. Read both so you do not confuse the “Can Gio metro” with lines that have stations in the inner city. The Vietnamese version of this article is here.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does construction of the Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro start?
The line had its ground-breaking ceremony on 19 December 2025. On 24 October 2026 the investor VinSpeed notified Ho Chi Minh City that full-scale, simultaneous construction of the main packages — tunnel, viaduct, Ben Thanh and Can Gio stations, depot and control centre — starts on 30 October 2026.
When will the Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro open?
According to VinSpeed’s notice of 24 October 2026, construction will take more than three years with a target of December 2029 for completion and commercial operation. Documents from early 2026 had targeted 2028; the new date is a target and may change.
How long is the line and how many stations does it have?
It is 54.062 km long and crosses nine wards and communes of Ho Chi Minh City: Ben Thanh, Khanh Hoi, Xom Chieu, Tan Thuan, Tan My, Nha Be, Binh Khanh, An Thoi Dong and Can Gio. About 3.3 km from Ben Thanh runs underground, the rest on viaduct. Phase 1 has only two stations, Ben Thanh and Can Gio; the full plan mentions six.
How much does the Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro cost?
The preliminary total investment is more than VND 102,430 billion, funded by the investor VinSpeed, excluding roughly VND 12,784 billion of compensation and land clearance paid by the state budget. The construction consortium is led by SGC with Vinhomes; CONINCO supervises.
Can a foreigner buy property in Can Gio ahead of the metro?
Yes, but only apartments in projects cleared for foreign sale, within the 30% cap per building; villas and townhouses on land are not available to foreign individuals. At Vinhomes Green Paradise the apartment line is the product open to foreigners; overseas Vietnamese holding Vietnamese nationality buy on the same terms as residents.
⚠️ Note: Compiled from investor VinSpeed’s notice of 24 October 2026 as reported by Tuoi Tre, Znews and VTC News, and from Ho Chi Minh City decisions issued between December 2025 and October 2026. The 30 October 2026 and December 2029 dates are the investor’s plan and may change; land-clearance figures are for Binh Khanh commune as of 15 October 2026, not the whole line. VND–USD conversions are indicative. The author is a property advisor, not an investment or legal adviser — verify each product’s legal status with the developer and the competent authorities before any transaction.
Considering a Can Gio apartment or villa on the back of the metro news?
Send Realtique the product you are looking at. We check ownership eligibility, the foreign quota, the payment schedule and the real infrastructure milestones — so you pay for what exists today, not for a 2029 date.
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KC Pham
KC Pham advises foreign buyers, overseas Vietnamese and investors on apartments, villas and project land in Ho Chi Minh City — reading each infrastructure milestone with clients, separating expectation from the price being paid, and pointing out which contract clauses to fix before signing.
