North-South Expressway public investment-funded sub-projects attracts investors

Vehicles run on a completed section of the expressway (Photo: Viet Hung/VietnamPlus)

Hanoi (VNA) – Three component projects of the North-South Expressway whose investment model was shifted from public-private partnership (PPP) to public investment model have attracted interest from investors as hundreds of contractors have bought bidding documents.

These component projects include Mai Son–National Highway 45, Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet–Dau Giay sections.

According to the Ministry of Transport, since the bidding invitations were issued from August 6 to September 4, the Mai Son-National Highway 45 component project, including five construction and installment packages, saw 60 units buying bidding documents with a total of 140 sets.

The Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet component project, comprising four construction and installment packages, had 140 bidding documents purchased by 61 contractors.

Meanwhile, 32 units bought 74 bidding documents of the Phan Thiet-Dau Giay component project which consists of four construction and installment packages.

Under the National Assembly’s Resolution No 117/2020/QH14 issued on June 19, 2020, the legislature decided on the public-private partnership (PPP) investment form for three component projects of the North-South Expressway: Mai Son–National Highway 45, Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet, and Phan Thiet-Dau Giay.

However, the Ministry of Transport called for shifting the investment model from PPP to public investment model for these component projects as they are on the urgent list and needed to be brought into operation soon.

After receiving the National Assembly’s approval of the change to public investment model, the ministry has accelerated bidding procedures so as to kick start construction at the end of September as requested by the Prime Minister.

To be more specific, the ministry approved adjustments to the three projects on July 30, completed approval for technical design and estimate of tender packages, and will release bidding documents for all 13 construction bidding packages of the projects on August 6.

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The ordered competent authorities to carry out bidding process in a transparent manner and in line with current bidding regulations.

“The bidding must select the best contractors who have considerable construction experience and financial and operational capacity, along with consultants and supervisors capable of ensuring the projects are carried out on schedule”, The affirmed.

The minister said that construction is underway for three other public investment projects of Cao Bo-Mai Son, Cam Lo-La Son, and My Thuan 2 bridge, adding construction of the Cao Bo-Mai Son and Cam Lo-La Son sections are expected to complete in December 2021 while completion of My Thuan 2 bridge is slated for the end of 2023.

With five PPP component projects, the selection of investors will be done in December and construction will begin in the beginning of 2021, The said.

Many investors are interested in the three public investment-funded sub-projects (Photo: Viet Hung/VietnamPlus)

Regarding land clearance work, 87.3 percent of the workload has been completed for 11 component projects, and the remaining work will be finished in the beginning of Quarter 4.

Admitting that the building of resettlement areas and site clearance in 13 localities faces maze of challenges, The said his ministry is focusing on instructing the work to meet schedule.

Under the National Assembly’s Resolution No.52/2017/QH14, the Prime Minister has allocated 49.5 trillion VND for the eastern route of the North-South Expressway project during 2016-2020. Of the total amount, more than 16.35 trillion VND was allocated for specific plans in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

This year, the transport ministry has already disbursed over 4.8 trillion VND, accounting for 51.3 percent of the total assigned disbursement. The remaining amount will be disbursed in the last months of the year.

The ministry has ordered investors and project management boards to accelerate procedures to adjust detailed disbursement plan, making it suitable to real situation.

Particularly, carrying out the Government’s Decree No.84/NQ-CP dated May 29, 2020 and the public investment law in 2019, the ministry decided to transfer capital from projects with slow disbursement to those with better disbursement progress.

“The ministry has made adjustment to 12 projects so far, with total capital of 679 billion VND”, The said.

The North-South Expressway project has a total length of 654km and is divided into 11 sub-projects, including six under public investment and five under PPP. Investment for the sub-projects totals 100.8 trillion VND (4.3 billion USD), of which 78.4 trillion VND is from the State budget./.