Budget capital accounts for more than half
Speaking to Giao Thong Newspaper, Mr. Tran Quang Lam, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, said that the Government has just assigned the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee as the lead agency to coordinate with localities to prepare a pre-feasibility study report for the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 project, propose specific policy mechanisms, and promptly submit it to the National Assembly at the special session at the end of 2024.
Route map of Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4.
As the focal agency, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has urgently coordinated with the remaining four provinces to review and complete the Pre-Feasibility Study Report of the overall project and its component projects to submit to the State Appraisal Council.
At a meeting with localities in mid-October 2024, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan highly appreciated the efforts of localities in researching and preparing a pre-feasibility report for the Ring Road 4 project.
As the “conductor”, Ho Chi Minh City has worked with localities to carry out many urgent tasks, propose mechanisms and policies, and even be willing to accept a part of the route through Long An, showing Ho Chi Minh City’s determination and responsibility in implementing this inter-regional super project.
Although the project is invested under the PPP method and BOT contract, to ensure feasibility, the State will participate in capital at a certain rate.
In the draft pre-feasibility study, localities proposed that the State budget capital account for 55.4% (equivalent to 75,667 billion VND, of which the central budget capital is 42,053 billion VND, local budget capital is 33,614 billion VND). BOT capital accounts for 44.6% (equivalent to 60,926 billion VND).
In the 2021-2025 period, about 16,035 billion VND will be needed. Of which, the central budget is expected to be about 7,469 billion VND, the local budget is about 8,566 billion VND (HCMC budget is about 2,400 billion VND).
In the 2026-2030 period, about 59,632 billion VND is needed, the central budget is expected to be about 34,584 billion VND, the local budget is about 25,048 billion VND (of which the Ho Chi Minh City budget is about 8,071 billion VND).
Need special mechanism
Mr. Tran Quang Lam said that the Ring Road 4 project is currently facing many challenges. Among them, the most difficult is balancing the budget capital of localities. Therefore, in the coming time, there is a great need for "boosts" in terms of mechanisms to remove obstacles in project implementation.
“In addition to Ho Chi Minh City, which can balance itself, the provinces of Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau are proposing that the central budget support 50% of the provinces participating in the project. Long An alone proposes that the central budget support 70%,” said Mr. Lam.
The total length of the section through Long An is about 78.3km, starting at Thay Cai canal (border of Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City and Duc Hoa district, Long An), the end point connecting to the North-South axis at Hiep Phuoc port area, Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City. The preliminary total investment of phase 1 of Long An province is 63,967 billion VND. Long An province's leaders have repeatedly expressed concern that local budget capital is difficult to arrange.
According to Mr. Lam, for Ho Chi Minh City, although it has financial resources, there is no mechanism for this locality to use budget capital to implement the Beltway 4 project. In addition, there is currently no mechanism to use the budget of one locality to support another.
Propose two options
Learning from the experience of the Hanoi Ring Road 4 project, if the project is implemented in too large a component, it will be very difficult to construct and operate. At a recent meeting, localities proposed two options.
Perspective of Ring Road 4, Ho Chi Minh City.
First, divide the section through Long An into two component projects. Section one from Thay Cai canal (on the border of Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City and Duc Hoa district, Long An) to Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway; section two from Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway to the end point connecting with the North - South axis at Hiep Phuoc port area, Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City. Dividing into two projects will be more feasible in attracting investment under the PPP form and allocating local budgets.
The second option is to cut a part of the Long An province component project for Ho Chi Minh City. This option will help Ho Chi Minh City take the initiative in allocating the budget to implement the project, sharing the difficulties for Long An.
Supporting the plan to divide the route for Ho Chi Minh City to implement, Mr. Nguyen Minh Lam, Vice Chairman of Long An Provincial People's Committee said: "Ho Chi Minh City can choose the route to implement, the rest will be taken care of by Long An province."
However, according to Mr. Lam, this needs to be carefully studied by the consulting unit to ensure feasibility for submission to the Prime Minister as well as for future exploitation. This will also help the project passing through Long An to be more feasible, and implemented in parallel with other provinces.
Total investment nearly 137,000 billion
According to the plan, Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 has a cross-section of four complete expressway lanes, with continuous emergency lanes arranged along the entire route with a width of 3m. There are 21 interchanges on the route. In addition, the project will invest in building parallel roads and residential roads on both sides of the route according to the traffic needs of each section and each locality (sections passing through urban areas, residential areas, etc.). The total estimated investment is about 136,948 billion VND (estimated central budget capital is about 49,902 billion VND, estimated local budget capital is about 37,028 billion VND).
In the pre-feasibility report, the localities agreed to propose a number of specific mechanisms. Specifically, it was proposed that localities be allowed to use local budget capital to invest in Ring Road 4 projects (under the expenditure task from the Central Budget); the mechanism to use this local budget to support other localities in implementing public investment activities of the project (Thu Bien bridge connecting Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces, bridge connecting Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces). This is the mechanism that has been applied when implementing the Ring Road 3 project.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/can-cu-hich-co-che-lam-vanh-dai-4-tphcm-192241105102930822.htm
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