"Wandering" National Highway 6 Project Tuan Giao

A section of National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau

Unfortunate fate

Nearly a month after the conclusion of the Government Inspectorate, early last week, the Thang Long Project Management Board submitted Document No. 2870/BQLDATL-DA4 requesting the Ministry of Construction to appraise and approve the suspension of the Project to Renovate and Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section (Km405+300 - Km501+000).

Mr. Pham Thanh Binh, Deputy Director of Thang Long Project Management Board, said that the suspension of the National Highway 6 Improvement and Upgrade Project, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section, should have been done earlier to avoid great waste for both the State and the construction units.

It should be added that the Project to Improve and Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section is one of the road infrastructure projects invested by the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction), with the most miserable fate ever.

The total investment for the Project to Improve and Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section approved in Decision 2227/QD-BGTVT dated July 31, 2008 is 2,359,352,613,135 VND, of which: - Construction value: 1,568.544 billion VND; compensation cost for site clearance and resettlement: 96.578 billion VND; other costs: 179.706 billion VND; contingency cost: 514.522 billion VND.

Approved for investment by the Ministry of Transport in late July 2008, the project aims to upgrade 91.408 km of National Highway 6, the section in Tuan Giao district (old) and Muong Lay town (old), Dien Bien province, to the scale of a grade IV mountainous road.

With the above investment scale, the Project has a total investment of 2,359.3 billion VND, becoming the largest road infrastructure project in the Northwest region in 2008.

The project to improve and upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section, when completed, will contribute to completing the traffic infrastructure according to the province's general planning, serving the operation of Lai Chau hydropower plant; promoting socio-economic development, ensuring security and defense for the Northwest region in general and Dien Bien province in particular.

With that meaning, the Project was proposed by the Ministry of Transport to the Government to prioritize the allocation of government bond capital, with the implementation period from the third quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2012. The Vietnam Road Administration was assigned the role of investor; Project Management Board 1 was assigned to implement.

However, due to lengthy procedures, it was not until June 2010 that the Project began construction on the field with 14 construction packages being implemented in turn.

The first difficulty that befell the Project to Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section, was that after only about 6-8 months of construction, the Government issued Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP, dated February 24, 2011 on key solutions focusing on curbing inflation, stabilizing the macro-economy, and ensuring social security.

On January 8, 2013, the Ministry of Transport issued Decision 64/QD-BGTVT on announcing the list of projects using government bond capital to be divided into investment phases, suspended, or postponed until after 2015, including the Project to Improve and Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section (Km405+300 - Km501+000).

At the time of suspension and extension, the Project had only been allocated 314,293 billion VND from government bond capital, so all 14 construction packages were in the unfinished construction stage with a total implementation value of about 155 billion VND; in which the package with the largest implementation value was 21 billion VND, the package with the smallest implementation value was 506 million VND because the contractor had not yet started construction due to not being assigned the site, only performing traffic assurance work on the route.

“Most of the construction volume is in the form of semi-finished products, reinforced concrete structures, sewers and ditches that have very little use value,” admitted the leader of the Thang Long Project Management Board.

The site clearance work undertaken by the People's Committee of Dien Bien province is also in an unfinished state when only about 73.3 billion VND has been disbursed, including: compensation plan, site clearance of about 19.4 billion VND; moving public works, measuring maps, establishing land records and other costs of about 53.9 billion VND.

According to the representative of the Thang Long Project Management Board, at the project that was suddenly stopped, both the investor and contractors hope that the project will soon be refinanced to resume construction, at the latest by 2015, so a part of the workers and equipment will remain at the construction site.

However, since the extension of the schedule until early 2015, the Ministry of Transport has repeatedly sent documents requesting competent authorities to prioritize capital allocation, but in the context of continued budget difficulties, the Project to Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section was put on the "waiting" list and continuously missed appointments with the allocation of medium-term public investment capital for the 2016-2020 and 2021-2025 periods.

Double consequences

Due to lack of capital allocation, in June 2015, the Ministry of Transport issued Decision No. 2309/QD-BGTVT transferring the task of project investor from Project Management Board 1 to Dien Bien Department of Transport and assigned Project Management Board 1 to complete the project settlement to the technical stopping point, with completion time in July 2015.

The miserable fate has not let go of the National Highway 6 Improvement and Upgrade Project, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section when the Department of Transport of Dien Bien province has not been allocated a medium-term capital plan for the period 2016-2020 to restart the project. At the same time, the Project is expected to increase the total investment compared to the previous investment decision, so the investment policy must be adjusted.

According to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, to continue implementation, the Project needs to be approved for adjustment and assigned to a subordinate unit (Ministry of Construction) to organize the preparation of a report proposing the project investment policy.

By the end of January 2020, the Ministry of Transport issued Decision No. 45/QD-BGTVT transferring the investor's responsibility from the Department of Transport of Dien Bien province to the Thang Long Project Management Board to manage and utilize previous results to organize the preparation of a Report proposing the project's investment policy in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025.

However, for some reasons, the Project was once again out of the list of public investment capital allocation in the medium-term investment period 2021-2025.

Document No. 375/KL-TTCP, dated October 14, 2025 - Concluding the inspection of projects with difficulties and problems at the Ministry of Construction, the Government Inspectorate said that National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section is one of the particularly important projects for the Northwestern provinces. If the route is completed and put into operation, it can shorten the distance from Tuan Giao to Muong Lay by about 100 km because it does not have to go around National Highway 279 and National Highway 12.

However, currently National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section has been seriously degraded, causing many difficulties for people and vehicles participating in traffic. Slippery, bumpy, muddy road surface is the main cause of traffic jams and unsafety.

The project's suspension also causes financial losses due to the mobilization of machinery, the concentration of supplies and materials that cannot be used for a long time; the waste of land resources due to compensation for site clearance and unfinished construction, making it impossible to continue farming, affecting the lives of local people.

In addition, in case the Project is forced to stop permanently or end the project, the representative of Party A (Project Management Board, project investor) also faces the risk of having to arrange additional capital to compensate for the losses and costs incurred by contractors due to the stoppage of construction such as: costs of mobilizing forces, materials and equipment gathered at the site.

Waste also comes from loss of materials due to having to stop construction midway; unfinished precast structures that are not accepted; costs of moving workers, machinery and equipment out of the construction site; costs of renting space, protecting materials and machinery during the delay; and prolonged bank guarantee fees due to stalled progress.

It is known that the Thang Long Project Management Board and contractors have signed the final settlement of the technical stopping point of construction, consulting and other cost packages with the remaining value of the volume to be paid to contractors and consultants being 16,007 billion VND.

Because the project has not yet been allocated capital, the Thang Long Project Management Board has not been able to pay the contractors or continue implementing the project.

In recent times, contractors have continuously sent written requests, requesting the Thang Long Project Management Board to pay the above debts; the outstanding debts have lasted for many years, leading to financial difficulties for many units.

On the other hand, the remaining value of the advance payment of the Project's packages at the time of the suspension of the progress is 19.7 billion VND. According to the report of the Thang Long Project Management Board, the amount of advance payment that has not been recovered for the state budget by June 30, 2025 is 19.7 billion VND. Currently, the Thang Long Project Management Board has filed a lawsuit in court to recover the remaining amount.

It is known that, based on the report updating the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2026-2030 and building the public investment plan needs for 2026 in Document No. 8509/BXD-KHTC, dated August 15, 2025 sent to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Construction plans to arrange a capital plan for the Project to Renovate and Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section.

In order to have a basis for payment, settlement and termination of the Project and at the same time ensure no duplication when deciding on investment policies for new projects in the medium-term investment plan for the period 2026-2030, stopping the implementation of the Project (not continuing to carry out the remaining work items that have not been constructed) to pay and settle the volume that has been performed up to the technical stopping point is one of the prerequisites.

“This is not an easy task because the Project to Upgrade National Highway 6, Tuan Giao - Lai Chau section has been suspended for too long. Most of the direct personnel of the investor, project management board, and even the contractor have changed, so the reconciliation and debt settlement will be very complicated and prolonged,” admitted a representative of the Thang Long Project Management Board.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/vat-vuong-du-an-quoc-lo-6-tuan-giao---lai-chau-d443604.html