HCMC – The HCMC government has proposed the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV) audit a road project connecting Vo Van Kiet Avenue and the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway this year to complete procedures to end a BOT contract for the project ahead of time.
In a document sent to SAV, HCMC Chairman Phan Van Mai wrote that the road project was a key project of a breakthrough program to reduce traffic congestion, serving the city’s socioeconomic development.
The city approved the project in October 2015. In the first phase, a six-lane 2.7-kilometer section from an intersection with National Highway 1 to an intersection with Tan Tao-Cho Dem street and two parallel roads would be developed.
The project required an investment of nearly VND1.6 trillion, excluding the site clearance cost, as site clearance was separated as a subproject. The project, invested in by Yen Khanh Group JSC, was executed from 2015 to 2017.
However, the capital disbursement for the project was slow, reaching VND140 billion, while the execution time ended. Therefore, in March 2020, the HCMC government assigned the municipal Department of Transport to inform the investor and contractor of the project of their breach of the contract and ask them to handle the breach within 90 days.
In mid-May last year, Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank announced that it would stop funding for the project as the investor and contractor had violated a credit contract.
A month later, the HCMC government approved the termination of the BOT contract for the project to prevent other costs from arising and soon continue work on the project.
