Close-up of inspected route No. 1 in Vinh Long

The Inspectorate of Vinh Long province has just issued a decision to conduct a thematic inspection of works and projects with difficulties, obstacles, slow progress, long-term backlog, low efficiency, and risk of loss and waste in Vinh Long province, including Route 1 - Tra Vinh City's inner-city road (old Tra Vinh province).

According to the decision, the inspection period is from the time of project implementation to July 1, 2025. The 6 inspected projects include: Route 1 project, inner-city road in Tra Vinh city (old) and 5 other projects in Ben Tre province (old) and Vinh Long city (old). Route 1 project - inner-city road in Tra Vinh city was completed and put into use in 2018 but the contract has not been liquidated yet.

In 2006, the People's Committee of Tra Vinh province approved the project to build Route 1. In April 2009, the project was implemented but had to be suspended 5 months later due to inspection. According to the original design, Route 1 was 2,200m long, 19.5m wide with a total investment of more than 141.6 billion VND. The total land area to be recovered for the project was 280,300m2, involving 253 households and 3 organizations.

The investor then adjusted and expanded it to 26m and added an additional budget of nearly 14.8 billion VND, raising the total investment of the project to 160 billion VND. However, the report of the Department of Transport sent to the People's Committee of Tra Vinh province approved up to 2,900m and the actual construction of the project reached 3,010m.

The investor arbitrarily changed the location and scale of the project compared to the province's policy. The road was "adjusted" to another location, causing many households to be upset, so the project had to stop. In 2009, the Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee directed the establishment of a project inspection team and discovered many violations.

The project made mistakes right from the project planning stage and during the implementation process, there were many errors. Among these errors, there were signs of irresponsibility and intentional wrongdoing, causing serious consequences. In addition, there were signs of collusion and bid rigging between the Bidding Assistance Team; the investor and the contractors for personal gain, not ensuring competition in bidding.

After being inspected, the Line 1 project was suspended for many years and the province decided to end phase 1. In 2015, the project was restarted and continued to invite bids for phase 2. At this time, the provincial budget was still difficult, so the decision was made to re-establish the project to call for investment in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) and build-transfer (BT) contracts.

After the construction project is completed, the enterprise will receive 34,420m2 of land on both sides of Route 1 that has been reclaimed by the state, cleared for subdivision and sale, and capital recovery. The enterprise will construct 3-layer asphalt pavement, standard 4.5kg/m2, total contract value of more than 88 billion VND and completed in August 2018.

The company has implemented the contract, completed construction of Line 1 and was accepted at the end of 2018. However, this is the first BT project of the province, so the consultation and proposal for contract implementation are not strict and not in accordance with legal regulations. The company has not been paid for the land fund as committed.

During use, some locations on route 1 showed signs of damage and became garbage dumps.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Giao-thong/can-canh-tuyen-duong-so-1-bi-thanh-tra-o-vinh-long-i779380/