HCMC – A consortium comprising two local firms has proposed developing Cat Lai Bridge, connecting HCMC’s District 2 with Nhon Trach District in the southern province of Dong Nai.
According to an announcement issued on April 7 by the provincial government of Dong Nai, the consortium of Vietnam Urban And Industrial Zone Development Investment Corporation, or IDICO, and Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No. 6, or Cienco 6, seeks to build the bridge under the public-private partnership format.
The Dong Nai Department of Planning and Investment was asked to team up with the relevant agencies to work out criteria for selecting investors and report to the provincial government for consideration and approval before April 20.
Dong Nai Province made preparations for the project’s investment after it was delegated power by the Government to put the project into action in August last year.
Earlier, according to the southern locality, the project required some VND7.2 trillion in investment, and it was considered unfeasible to execute the whole project under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) format. Therefore, the provincial government proposed dividing the project into three components.
Specifically, the HCMC government will build a road leading to the bridge in HCMC, while another road section leading to the bridge in Dong Nai will be developed by the province.
Dong Nai will also build the main section of the bridge under the BOT and build-transfer formats. However, the project’s construction format and the investor have yet to be finalized, so the start date of the project is unknown.
Roughly 50,000 people travel between HCMC and Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach using the Cat Lai ferry station per day. The Cat Lai Bridge will replace the existing ferry services once it is put into service.
By Le Anh
