Ho Chi Minh City has announced plans to deploy 11 TOD locations along the metro line and Ring Road 3.

According to the draft of the Master Plan Adjustment Project for the city until 2040, with a vision to 2060, Ho Chi Minh City plans many locations for TOD development. The city has announced plans to deploy 11 TOD locations along the metro line and Ring Road 3 in the near future, taking advantage of special mechanisms and policies.

Mr. Bui Xuan Cuong, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said that with a population of more than 10 million people, the city's traffic and urban planning requires rapid, harmonious, connected, and synchronous development of infrastructure. In particular, urban railways are identified as the main axis and backbone of public transport, creating a driving force for socio-economic development, ensuring the sustainable development orientation of Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of the Department of Technical Infrastructure Management (Department of Construction) said that the city is forming and developing a system of gateway satellite cities, linked to economic corridors and key spatial axes; accelerating the implementation of the TOD model associated with urban embellishment. The potential land fund for development according to this model in Ho Chi Minh City is currently about 32,000 hectares of agricultural land, vacant land that does not affect or has little impact on the current population; about 9,000 hectares of industrial land, production land, land with converted functions; 23,000 areas of land encouraged for redevelopment associated with TOD in existing, renovated, embellished areas with residents or current functional areas. The city applies a special mechanism to attract and use all revenues in the TOD area to develop the urban railway system, public transport system, and technical infrastructure connecting with the public passenger transport system.

The National Assembly has issued Resolution No. 188/2025/QH15 on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of the urban railway network in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on the TOD model along metro lines and ring roads. According to the urban railway system development project, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on investing simultaneously and completing 7 metro lines with a total length of 355km in the next 10 years. The total preliminary investment for this phase is about 40.2 billion USD. By 2045, this network will increase to 510 km. Upcoming metro lines are oriented to increase underground length to reduce compensation costs, speed up construction and effectively exploit underground space, and combine urban embellishment according to the TOD model.

“The city can pilot a few TOD development locations, then learn from practical experience to perfect the system of mechanisms and policies... At the same time, carry out the work of reviewing and adjusting the planning and urban design around the stations and determining land funds, adjusting functional zoning to increase land use efficiency and high integration,” said Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan.

Citing international experience in planning and implementing the TOD model, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Tung - Deputy Head of the TOD Group under the Green Infrastructure and Cities Program (FCDO GCIP) said that the steps to create a complete TOD model including planning - design - investment, construction and operation in each phase have a close connection between railways and urban areas. Each country has a different TOD development model. "Complicated institutions and administrative procedures are major barriers in implementing TOD. "To achieve the goal of implementing TOD along the corridors of high-volume passenger transport routes, creating a chain of TOD areas in Ho Chi Minh City will be quite difficult. The city needs to have breakthrough solutions, focusing immediately on TOD planning at the station level," Dr. Tung suggested.

Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong said that TOD is a fairly new field for Ho Chi Minh City in particular and for urban areas in Vietnam in general. Ho Chi Minh City really needs support in terms of knowledge, technology, and experience in mobilizing investment capital from international friends to transform from the traditional urban railway construction model to integrating TOD right from the current stage - the stage of building a legal foundation, financial plans, policies to attract strategic investors...

“The city is moving towards synchronous and integrated transport and urban planning. Urban railways must become the backbone of the public passenger transport network, creating more momentum for sustainable socio-economic development for the city,” Mr. Cuong affirmed about the city’s TOD development strategy.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/tp-ho-chi-minh-phat-trien-tod-lam-dong-luc-thuc-day-kinh-te-xa-hoi-161382.html