Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh inspected the site and promoted the progress of two key expressway projects.
On the afternoon of February 13 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh inspected the construction site of the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway project, phase 1; worked with relevant agencies on the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway project and the investment plan to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay expressway.
Accompanying the Prime Minister were Party Central Committee members: Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Minister, Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Lieutenant General Le Quoc Hung, Deputy Minister of Public Security, Secretary of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Party Committee Pham Viet Thanh, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai; leaders of ministries, branches, central and local agencies.
Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway is of great significance. When completed, it will connect the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway, Ben Luc (Long An) - Long Thanh Expressway (under construction), and the routes connecting to Long Thanh Airport; maximize the potential of Cai Mep - Thi Vai seaport, Long Thanh International Airport, and promote the socio-economic development of Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces in particular and the Southeast region in general.
After completing this highway, the travel time from Ho Chi Minh City to Ba Ria - Vung Tau will be shortened to only about 70 minutes instead of 150 minutes and frequent traffic jams as present.
The Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project has a total length of 53.7 km (34.2 km through Dong Nai province, 19.5 km through Ba Ria - Vung Tau province), invested according to the scale of the expressway with a design speed of 100 km/h, the cross-section scale of phase 1 is from 04 to 06 lanes in each section, the completion phase is expanded to ensure the scale of 06-08 lanes. The total investment of the project is nearly 18,000 billion VND, including 3 component projects; implementation time from 2022, basically completed in 2025 and put into operation from 2026.
Of which, component project 1 is 16 km long, with Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee as the managing agency, with a total investment of 6,012 billion VND; component 2 is more than 18 km long, with the Ministry of Transport as the managing agency, with a total investment of 6,852 billion VND; component 3 is about 19.5 km long, with Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee as the managing agency, with a total investment of 4,964 billion VND.
The project started construction on June 18, 2023. According to the report of the Ministry of Transport and localities, component project 1 has 02 construction packages; preparation work and construction on site are being carried out.
Component project 2 has 02 construction packages; some items with available land are being constructed (output reaching about 3%). Component project 3 has 01 construction package; construction is being implemented and progressing very well, output has reached about 12%.
The main problem of the project at present is the site clearance in Dong Nai province, leading to the construction progress not meeting the plan. Specifically, the site clearance work is carried out by 02 provinces, while the project component 3 implemented by Ba Ria - Vung Tau has reached 96%, the project component 1 has only handed over 5%, the project component 2 has handed over nearly 20% (implemented by Dong Nai).
After listening to the reports, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Dong Nai has recently had to carry out site clearance for many large infrastructure projects. Therefore, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Electricity Corporation to send a working group with good officials to work directly, supporting Dong Nai in site clearance, relocating power projects... to complete the site handover before June 30, 2024.
Regarding raw materials, the Prime Minister agreed to the policy of using sand and soil exploited from the construction of Long Thanh airport as raw materials for the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway project.
Ba Ria - Vung Tau province is doing a good job of disbursing for the project. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to balance and arrange 600 billion VND from the increased revenue in 2023 to supplement Ba Ria - Vung Tau to implement component project 3 in 2024.
The Ministry of Transport, together with localities and research agencies, will add intersections to the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway to open up new development space and effectively exploit the expressway.
The Prime Minister requested to strive to open the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway to traffic in 2025.
Regarding the investment in expanding the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway, the Prime Minister assigned the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises to preside over and direct the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) to complete the capital source plan in February 2024.
The 55 km long, 4-lane Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway project has been put into use since 2016. It is an important traffic route connecting Ho Chi Minh City with the Southeast region, with VEC currently being the investor, manager and operator.
After being put into operation, the highway began to become overloaded and in recent years, traffic volume on the route has increased, leading to frequent traffic jams./.
