HCMC – The Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) wants to tap its own budget totaling VND14.7 trillion to widen a section of the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway in southern Vietnam, according to VEC’s proposal recently sent to the Ministry of Transport.
VEC suggested widening the 21.9-kilometer-long section between HCMC and Dong Nai Province’s Long Thanh. This section connects the interchange with Beltway No.2 in HCMC and the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway interchange.
Of this, a section from the interchange with Beltway No.2 with the interchange with Beltway No.3 would be expanded to eight lanes, while the remaining one from the interchange with Beltway No.3 to the interchange with the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway would be widened to 10 lanes, the local media reported.
The expansion project would require an estimated VND14,780 billion, excluding loan interest during the project implementation. Of the amount, nearly VND10,800 billion would go to road construction, VND800 billion to site clearance, and over VND1,000 billion to management, consulting services and others. Backup funding would be around VND2,100 billion.
The expansion project would be carried out from the final quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2026.
VEC suggested HCMC take charge of widening a four-kilometer-long section from the An Phu intersection to the interchange with Beltway No.2, as the city had been assigned to manage and operate this section.
As for the pros and cons of investment formats, VEC said public investment would help facilitate the project’s progress. However, using the State budget for the project would lead to the public debt ceiling rising, while the country is focusing on executing the big-ticket North-South Expressway project and other vital ones. Therefore, it would be unfeasible to allocate State money for the HCMC-Long Thanh expressway section expansion, VEC explained.
Using the public-private partnership format would put no pressure on the State budget, but in this case, a certain amount of public investment would still be needed.
Therefore, VEC proposed the Transport Ministry allow it to raise funds on its own to expand the expressway.
