HCMC – The HCMC Department of Transport has written to the municipal government proposing using the city’s budget to develop a six-kilometer-long road connecting Cat Lai and Phu Huu ports.
The inter-port road would be extended to the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway and Beltway No. 3, facilitating cargo transportation to other provinces.
The 12-lane road would start from Nguyen Thi Dinh Street and end at the intersection between Beltway No. 3 and the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway.
The project would cost an estimated VND8 trillion, which would be entirely funded by the HCMC budget, instead of the private sector through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract, the local media reported.
The Transport Department reasoned that it would be financially unviable to implement the project under a BOT contract because three nearby road projects are due to start toll collection under BOT contracts, making it tough for the investor of the inter-port road to recover capital.
Moreover, the pressure from road tolling in the area might spark negative reactions from drivers and trucking businesses as they are now paying seaport infrastructure fees.
The department plans to add revenue from the seaport infrastructure fee collection to the city’s budget for developing and upgrading infrastructure around seaport areas in the city.
The inter-port road is scheduled to get off the ground in 2024.
The Cat Lai port is the largest in Vietnam. Cargo throughput at the port accounts for 85% of the total in southern Vietnam and half of the nation’s total. Meanwhile, the Phu Huu port has also seen a huge spike in goods throughput.
Therefore, many roads around the two ports, such as Nguyen Thi Dinh, Vo Chi Cong, Dong Van Cong and Nguyen Duy Trinh, are frequently congested.
