On the afternoon of May 25, the National Assembly discussed in groups the investment policy for the North-South Expressway construction project in the West, Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) - Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc) section.
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said that this is a project that the people have been waiting for. If the project becomes a reality, it will have a great effect on the economic and social development connecting the Central Highlands with the Southeast region and Ho Chi Minh City.
The project has a total investment of more than 25,000 billion VND. Of which, the state invests 12,770 billion VND, the remaining 12,770 billion VND will be invested by the winning investor. The Minister of Transport said that this is a very large number, so many National Assembly Deputies are concerned about its feasibility.
In response to these concerns, the Minister affirmed that investment attraction can be assured due to many factors. "This is a project with a toll collection period that is not too long (about 18 years) and has guaranteed bank interest rates and investment rates. This project is similar to the 3 PPP projects on the North-South axis in the East that have been completed and will soon collect tolls," the Minister explained.
Previously, without state capital participation, BOT projects had a long toll collection period, about 25-30 years. With this project, the toll collection period of about 18 years has attracted many investors.
The Minister said that with the mechanism of state participation, there is basically no risk. When the National Assembly officially approves the Road Law allowing toll collection on state-invested highways, it means that both the state and the investor will collect tolls for this project.
"We can absolutely prioritize investors to collect first, and the state to collect later, so there is almost no financial risk for businesses," the Minister affirmed.
Fully calculate the elements of the highway rest stop
Responding to the question of Delegate Nguyen Van Canh (Binh Dinh) about voters' concerns that local residential areas may be divided when building the expressway, the Minister affirmed: "When building the expressway, the Ministry always implements fully, collects opinions carefully, goes down to wards, communes, villages, and residential groups to ask for opinions."
Previously, some routes had to add service roads and residential roads because during the pandemic, when consulting the community about the project, many times the local authorities did not care, and the people themselves did not pay attention. Therefore, these projects depend on consultants, designers, and surveyors.
When the approval was completed and implementation began, people found it inconvenient and some localities wanted to add service roads and residential roads. Some localities wanted to add 50% more service roads, residential roads and overpasses.
Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that, learning from previous projects, in this project, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated very closely with the locality to understand the needs of people who want to build service roads and residential roads in this section.
Responding to the opinion on rest stops proposed by Delegate Nguyen Manh Hung (Can Tho), the Minister of Transport said: “Previously, when implementing the North-South Expressway Phase 1, we did not have much experience in highway construction and had not yet decided whether to socialize or state-invest in rest stops. By the end of the 2022 phase, as soon as the problem was seen, the Ministry of Transport acted very quickly, building a legal framework in the direction of socialization.”
To date, the Ministry of Transport has planned a network of rest stops, issued national standards for highways including rest stops, and issued a circular with full regulations. In particular, it has allocated an area for building electric charging stations at rest stops that is comparable to the world.
“Whatever foreign countries have, Europe, America, China have, we have it all. Regarding electric charging stations, I have given very detailed instructions on this issue,” the Minister of Transport emphasized.
The Minister informed that the North-South Expressway in the East is expected to have 36 rest stops. From now until the end of 2025, all rest stops of the newly inaugurated expressways and the expressways in phase 1 will be fully and synchronously completed.
With new highways, the Ministry of Transport has experience and when there are full standards and legal documents, building rest stops will be very simple.
For more information, Mr. Thang said: “In the immediate future, the projects to build rest stops have received the attention of many investors. During the trial bidding, there was a station that attracted 40 participating units. There was a station with a starting price of about 120 billion VND but the bidding price was over 200 billion VND. That will also be a large source of revenue for the state budget.”
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Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/bo-truong-gtvt-tram-dung-nghi-cao-toc-nuoc-ngoai-co-gi-thi-viet-nam-co-du-2284421.html
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