HÀ NỘI – The Ministry of Transport has decided to cancel two national highway projects.
The projects include upgrade work to the Chợ Mới-Bắc Kạn National Highway and the new National Highway 3 (Hà Nội – Thái Nguyên).
The cancellation of the Chợ Mới-Bắc Kạn National Highway, invested under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, was due to problems in financial mobilisation, loan interest payments and maintenance.
The Chợ Mới-Bắc Kạn stretch was intended to be part of National Highway 3.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment had asked the Ministry of Transport to explain why the project was going ahead because the project had not been approved.
The Hà Nội – Thái Nguyên section of National Highway 3 was also shelved because of issues regarding toll collections.
National Highway 3 was funded by Japanese official development assistance (ODA) and Vietnamese capital and put into operation in November 2014, but the investors wanted to upgrade the road to 100-120km per hour with total investment of VNĐ 3.25 trillion (US$141 million).
Meanwhile the Việt Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC) has asked authorities for permission to use money collected from completed projects for ground clearance at the ongoing Bến Lức-Long Thành National Highway.
According to the VEC, the project was in its last stages.
Ground clearance costs for the last stages were estimated about VNĐ504 billion (US$21.8 million), while the State budget has allocated VNĐ383 billion (US$16.5 million).
To solve the problem, the VEC has asked for VNĐ121 billion (US$5.2 million) to complete ground clearance.
The Bến Lức- Long Thành National Highway running through HCM City, Long An and Đồng Nai received initial funding of US$ 1.6 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). -- VNS
