Thoroughly preparing to invest in the construction of 3 important highways in the North

Rốt ráo chuẩn bị đầu tư xây dựng 3 tuyến cao tốc quan trọng phía Bắc- Ảnh 1. — The Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi expressway is 40km long, planned to have 4 lanes, and is currently operating with 2 lanes - Photo: Ta Hai

The Minister said that, implementing the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry of Construction and localities are actively investing in the expressway system. To date, the country has put into operation about 2,268km of expressways, and is under construction about 1,833km. Of these, nearly 1,000km are being completed by the end of this year, meeting the goal of having 3,000km of expressways nationwide by 2025, and striving to reach 5,000km by 2030.

Localities need to unify

Regarding investment in upgrading and completing the Hanoi - Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi expressway, according to the Minister, localities agreed on the necessity of investment and the investment method in the form of public-private partnership (PPP). The People's Committees of the provinces/cities: Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen need to consider and have a document agreeing on the plan to assign the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen province as the competent authority.

In the process of preparing for investment under the PPP model, localities have studied and considered investment options to expand the Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi expressway along with the Hanoi - Thai Nguyen expressway to ensure uniformity, uniformity in scale and technical standards on the entire expressway. At the same time, it is necessary to review the scope to ensure that the investment does not overlap with the scope of the investment project for the route connecting Gia Binh airport with Hanoi capital; Review and propose technical solutions to ensure maximum utilization of existing infrastructure that has been invested.

Regarding the Thai Nguyen (Bac Kan) - Cao Bang expressway project, the localities have agreed in principle to assign the People's Committee of Cao Bang province to be the managing agency. On that basis, the Ministry of Construction requested the People's Committee of Cao Bang province to preside over and closely coordinate with the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen province to carry out related legal procedures (arranging capital sources to participate in the project, implementing site clearance work in the area, implementation progress...) during the preparation of the pre-feasibility study report.

Recognizing that this route passes through mountain passes and forest areas, the Minister also requested localities to review the criteria for important national projects according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment to implement related procedures and ensure progress.

Regarding the investment in the road connecting Thai Nguyen and Lang Son provinces, the Minister requested the People's Committees of Thai Nguyen and Lang Son provinces to review and study the addition of the expressway to the provincial planning and mobilize legal capital sources for investment. The Ministry of Construction will closely coordinate with localities during the implementation process.

Decentralization of authority to local authorities to implement all 3 projects

Regarding the implementation of investment procedures for the 3 projects, a representative of the Department of Planning and Finance (Ministry of Construction) said that the Hanoi - Thai Nguyen expressway is 66km long, with a planned scale of 6 lanes, and is currently operating at a scale of 4 lanes (the bridge and land acquisition works have been carried out for 6 lanes). According to preliminary calculations, the cost of upgrading and expanding the route according to the planned scale is about 6,800 billion VND.

Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi Expressway is 40km long, planned with 4 lanes, currently operating with 2 lanes.

It is worth mentioning that the BOT project to build the Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi route is on the list of BOT transport projects that need to be resolved with difficulties and obstacles. Up to now, the related difficulties and obstacles have been supplemented in the revised PPP Law to create a legal corridor for expanding the route. Preliminary calculations show that the cost of upgrading and expanding the route according to the planned scale is about 10,000 billion VND.

Based on the proposal of Phuong Thanh Transport Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company, the Ministry of Construction reported to the Prime Minister on the investment plan to complete the construction of the CT.07 expressway, Hanoi - Thai Nguyen section, under the PPP method. In particular, it studied the plan to expand the Hanoi - Thai Nguyen section and the Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi section and proposed to assign Thai Nguyen province as the competent authority to implement the project.

On June 20, 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha directed the Ministry of Construction to preside over and coordinate with the People's Committee of Thai Nguyen province and relevant agencies to unify the investment plan.

The Thai Nguyen (Bac Kan) - Cao Bang expressway is 87km long (Thai Nguyen 60km, Cao Bang 27km), with a planned scale of 4 lanes, and a preliminary total investment of about 29,900 billion VND.

Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the People's Committees of Bac Kan and Cao Bang provinces have organized the preparation of the project's pre-feasibility study report. During the implementation process, due to the difficulty in mobilizing resources, the two localities reported and proposed to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Construction to include the expressway investment project in the medium-term public investment portfolio for the period 2026 - 2030 of the Ministry of Construction.

However, implementing the policy of promoting decentralization and delegation of power to localities, the Prime Minister has agreed to assign localities as the competent authorities to implement the project. The Ministry of Construction has assigned the project management unit to hand over relevant documents for Cao Bang province to continue implementation.

The Thai Nguyen - Lang Son Expressway is planned to run parallel to National Highway 1B, a key route connecting the two localities but has not been planned in related plans. The route is expected to be about 120km long (Lang Son 70km, Thai Nguyen 50km), with 4 lanes, and a preliminary total investment of about 29,000 billion VND.

In Notice No. 43 dated February 13, 2025 of the Government Office, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Construction to study and supplement the Lang Son - Thai Nguyen expressway in the process of reviewing and adjusting the Road Network Planning according to the Law on Planning and implementing it in the period of 2026 - 2030.

Phan Trang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/rot-rao-chuan-bi-dau-tu-xay-dung-3-tuyen-cao-toc-quan-trong-phia-bac-102250708190319004.htm