Streamlining the investment mechanism for highway rest stops.

Many new regulations help to streamline the mechanism for socializing investment resources in rest stops on highways, overcoming current shortcomings.

Many highways lack rest stops.

According to the plan for 2030, the whole country will have 5,000km of expressways, and the vision for 2050 is to have 41 expressways with a total length of approximately 9,014km. As of the end of 2024, the country had put into operation more than 2,000km.

The North-South Expressway from Ho Chi Minh City to Khanh Hoa is approximately 380km long; however, only the Long Thanh - Dau Giay section and a few temporary rest stops are currently in operation. Photo: Ta Hai.

However, many highways currently lack rest stops, leaving passengers and drivers traveling long distances without a place to rest or use the restroom.

The North-South Expressway route from Ho Chi Minh City to Khanh Hoa is approximately 380km long; however, only one rest stop is currently in operation on the Long Thanh - Dau Giay section, along with a few temporary rest stops.

Similarly, along the entire 206km stretch of the North-South expressway passing through Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An to Ha Tinh, there are only temporary rest stops.

According to Mr. Nguyen Viet Huy, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Expressway Department, the reason is due to limited investment capital.

The component projects of the North-South Expressway, Phase 1, are divided into investment phases with a limited 4 lanes. The rest stop component is separated into a separate project to be invested in through a public-private partnership model, instead of using state budget funds.

Furthermore, due to the incomplete and unclear legal regulations from the previous period regarding investment, business, and operation of rest stops, the implementation of investment through the socialized model has faced many difficulties.

Investors will take the initiative.

Mr. Huy stated that Decree 165/2024, recently issued by the Government , contains many new regulations that have helped to streamline the mechanism.

Two rest stops on the Phan Thiet - Dau Giay expressway are being urgently constructed with essential facilities to serve people during the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday.

Specifically, the decree stipulates that rest stops are an item of a highway construction investment project implemented under the public-private partnership (PPP) method.

The total investment for the highway project includes the cost of land acquisition for the rest stops but excludes the construction investment costs.

Investors are not entitled to a refund of the investment costs for constructing rest stops. The highway financing plan does not include revenue and costs for the construction, operation, and management of rest stops.

Thus, with BOT expressway projects, the State has entrusted the investing enterprise with the responsibility of proactively constructing rest stops to ensure they are integrated with the expressway when put into operation.

Associate Professor Tran Chung, Chairman of the Association of Transport Infrastructure Investors, believes that this will save investment costs from the budget.

Furthermore, businesses will foster creativity through architectural design and operation, combined with promoting local products and culture.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Huy stated that, given the need for public investment to be allocated to highway development, the State will not spend money on projects that have the potential to attract investment.

The new decree allows the use of public investment funds to clear and level land, handing over clean land to investors to make it easier to attract them.

The cost of constructing the toll stations is also not included in the total investment cost of the highway project.

If the total investment of a highway project is included in the total cost, tolls will be collected to recover the investment, while rest stops are service and business facilities that generate profit, so they can recover their investment on their own.

Bidding process to select investors

To provide a basis for organizing and selecting investors to implement rest stops, in early 2023, the Ministry of Transport issued Circular No. 01/2023 guiding the preparation, approval, and publication of the project list; methods and standards for evaluating bid documents and proposals in the bidding process for selecting investors for rest stops.

In June 2023, the Vietnam Expressway Administration issued a decision approving the selection of an investor for a rest stop project funded by the state budget, specifically the project to build and operate the rest stop at Km 144+560, part of the Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet component project on the North-South Expressway.

Accordingly, the FutaBusLines - Thanh Hiep Phat consortium won the bid. FutaBusLines, the leading company in the consortium, is considered a reputable unit with many years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry, along with a system of rest stops and transfer stations in many provinces and cities.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Ministry of Transport has been decisively directing the deployment of rest stops on expressways.

The goal is that by the end of 2025, all rest stops on the new North-South expressways will be inaugurated; the expressway sections in phase 1 will be completed according to plan and put into operation.

For rest stops funded by the State budget, Decree 165/2024 guiding the Road Law clearly stipulates: Based on the approved location and scale of the rest stop, a bidding process will be organized to select an investor to build the rest stop.

If no investor is selected through the bidding process, the rest stop will be funded by the state budget.

To date, the selection of investors has been completed for 8 rest stops belonging to the component projects of the North-South Expressway, Phase 1, and bidding is currently underway for 13 rest stops belonging to the component projects of Phase 2.

The Highway Department organized a bidding process to select investors who met stringent requirements regarding capacity, experience, and financial resources.

According to Mr. Nguyen Viet Huy, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Expressway Department, after the completion of the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) expressway construction investment project contract, the investor transfers all invested assets, including rest stops, to the State for management and operation in accordance with the law on the management and use of public assets.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/khoi-thong-co-che-dau-tu-tram-dung-nghi-cao-toc-192250116225718611.htm