Tunnelling for Vietnam’s first subway has begun in Ho Chi Minh city.

The Japanese Shimizu Construction company is slated to oversee the construction of a 1.74 kilometre underground stretch between the planned Opera House Station and Ba Son Station.

The subway is part of Ho Chi Minh City’s new urban railway which will span 19.7 kilometres and connect the city centre with the northeastern suburbs.

Various parts of the proposed six-line network will run overground, and some under.

A metro system is also in the works for Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi.

Earlier this week, the leading property developer Vingroup signed a deal with the Vietnamese government to invest into the city’s first metro system.

As part of the city’s overall development plan for the year 2030, Hanoi has planned to build an eight-line metro system that is estimated to cost $52 billion dollars.

Construction has already begun on four routes but progress has been slower than usual due to ballooning costs.

Hanoi is keen to use private-public partnerships to raise money for the infrastructure – and Vingroup is the first private company to invest in the project.