Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai will chair a meeting to consider plans to continue construction of the Bao Loc bypass.

(LĐ online) - According to Document No. 4375 dated June 24 of the Government Office , Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai will chair a meeting on the plan to handle the Bao Loc City bypass project.

The Bao Loc City bypass has been temporarily suspended since 2020, causing many construction items to deteriorate and be damaged.

Accordingly, the Government Office requested the ministries of Transport, Planning and Investment, Finance, Justice and Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, according to their assigned functions and tasks, to carefully prepare the contents and opinions for reporting at the meeting.

In particular, ministries and localities should focus on giving clear opinions on the feasibility, effectiveness and compliance with legal regulations for the proposed plan of the Ministry of Transport ; the next procedures that need to be implemented; and the expected capital balance capacity of the Ministry of Transport to implement the remaining volumes of the Bao Loc City bypass project.

To prepare the report content at the meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, on June 25, the Provincial People's Committee issued a document assigning the Department of Transport to coordinate with the provincial departments and branches to quickly review and prepare the contents related to the plan to handle the Bao Loc City bypass route as requested by the Government Office. From there, the Provincial People's Committee's staff gave their opinions at the meeting chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister.

A subsidence point occurred on the Bao Loc City bypass through Loc Son ward and is continuing to develop complicatedly.

According to the report of the Ministry of Transport, the Bao Loc City bypass project belongs to the investment project to construct and restore National Highway 20, section Km0 - Km123+105.17, in the territory of Dong Nai and Lam Dong provinces under the form of BT contract.

Initially, the Bao Loc bypass was implemented according to plan, with 70% of the construction volume completed. However, the implementation process encountered difficulties and obstacles and could not be completed as required due to a number of reasons such as: Local land clearance funding approved increased by about 61.5 billion VND; according to the financial plan, in 2018 the Project was supplemented with VAT refund sources to repay foreign loans, however, according to the Ministry of Finance's instructions, the Project was not refunded VAT of about 361.869 billion VND, resulting in a funding shortage.

In 2018, the State budget did not have time to allocate capital to repay foreign loans, so the Project Investor used the project's capital to repay the debt in advance. Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee could not allocate the remaining capital from the provincial budget as committed to complete the entire Bao Loc City bypass route due to the Budget Law at the time of construction.

Due to the lack of capital for construction investment and site clearance compared to the approved financial plan, the Bao Loc bypass has not been completed and construction has been temporarily suspended at the technical stop. After construction was suspended from 2020 until now, the Bao Loc bypass has many potential risks of traffic safety; many points have collapsed, damaged, and degraded; many environmental and social issues have arisen related to the project; warnings that failure to complete could lead to a breach of commitment assessment, impact on loan finance, and impact on the national credit rating.

The roadbed in many sections of the Bao Loc City bypass is seriously damaged and degraded after more than 3 years of construction suspension.

Therefore, recently, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with the People's Committee of Lam Dong province and related ministries and branches to study and report to the Prime Minister for consideration of a plan to completely resolve the problems and shortcomings occurring on the Bao Loc City bypass. From there, continuing to invest in completing the Bao Loc City bypass to ensure traffic safety is very necessary.

Through review, research and evaluation, the Ministry of Transport has proposed 3 feasible options to resolve the problems at the Bao Loc City bypass. Of which, the option of stopping investment in the Bao Loc City bypass under the BT contract form and establishing a new project for the remaining items (about 30%) of the Bao Loc City bypass to invest with public investment capital has the highest feasibility. The estimated cost to implement the remaining items of the Bao Loc City bypass is about 352.12 billion VND.

The Ministry of Transport has also received and explained the opinions of relevant ministries, branches and Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee on thoroughly resolving difficulties and problems related to the Bao Loc City bypass route. At the same time, it will continue to review and allocate capital in the medium-term public investment plan of the Ministry of Transport and other legal capital sources when approved by the Prime Minister for implementation in the coming time.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/kinh-te/202406/pho-thu-tuong-le-minh-khai-se-chu-tri-cuoc-hop-xem-xet-phuong-an-tiep-tuc-thi-cong-tuyen-tranh-bao-loc-90f1beb/