Information about the 'upgrade' of an important highway at the gateway to Hanoi

The Ministry of Construction has just sent its opinion to the Ministry of Finance, proposing to assign the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) as the managing agency for the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh route expansion project.

In the documents sent to the ministries, VEC said that it had studied many forms of investment for the expansion project. After evaluating the feasibility of each option, the enterprise leaned towards public investment, because this is a route that serves the interests of the community and is also associated with the responsibility and ability to mobilize resources of the unit that is directly managing and exploiting it.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the special feature of the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway is that VEC has invested most of the cost of building the route and is collecting tolls to recover capital. Continuing to assign this enterprise to manage the expansion is assessed to help ensure continuity in construction organization, management and operation, while avoiding complicated legal procedures when converting the investment model or assigning it to another unit.

Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway. Photo: VEC.

The Ministry of Construction also assessed that the public-private partnership plan in the form of BOT is difficult to implement due to the nature of the project, while investment under the Investment Law has many constraints on land handling and ownership of assets formed after investment. Therefore, public investment is considered to best meet progress requirements in the context of urgent expansion needs.

The transport and construction management agency requested the Ministry of Finance - the unit managing VEC and responsible for drafting related laws - to comprehensively evaluate the options to choose the most effective direction. The Ministry of Construction affirmed that assigning VEC as the managing authority has a legal and practical basis, because this enterprise has taken on a similar role in other large projects.

The Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway (Km210+000 - Km260+030) is 50 km long and has been put into operation since 2012 with a scale of 4 lanes. VEC believes that the expressway is currently overloaded and is at risk of becoming a "bottleneck" of the Eastern North - South Expressway axis, when the connecting sections at both ends, Phap Van - Cau Gie and Cao Bo - Mai Son, have been or are being expanded to 6 lanes. At the end of October, VEC submitted a document to the Prime Minister, requesting to be assigned as the managing agency to expand this route from 4 to 6 lanes.

Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway has long been overloaded.

According to the national road network planning, this expressway will be expanded to a larger scale in each phase. On that basis, VEC proposes to initially expand the entire route to meet medium-term needs, and the maximum scale according to the planning will be studied and implemented after meeting the conditions.

The enterprise also reported a plan to mobilize resources by combining the state budget and self-mobilized capital, to ensure that the project can start construction at the appropriate stage, avoiding prolonging the time and putting more pressure on the traffic infrastructure.

The Ministry of Construction assessed that the early expansion of the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh expressway is necessary not only to resolve the overload situation but also to improve the capacity of the entire North - South expressway in the East, creating a driving force for socio-economic development for the southern gateway localities of the capital...

Source: https://tienphong.vn/thong-tin-ve-viec-len-doi-tuyen-cao-toc-trong-yeu-o-cua-ngo-ha-noi-post1799697.tpo