The capital for upgrading the highway is very large, the Ministry of Transport proposed to divide the implementation into phases.

The Ministry of Transport has just sent a document to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha proposing an investment plan to upgrade the diverging expressways (2 lanes or 4 lanes without continuous emergency stop strips) to a complete scale.

Upgrade divergence is necessary

Accordingly, for the 2-lane highways, the Ministry of Transport said that there are currently 313km in operation (Cam Lo - La Son, La Son - Hoa Lien, Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi, Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh, Yen Bai - Lao Cai section of Noi Bai - Lao Cai highway); 293km of 2-lane highway is under construction; 83km of 2-lane highway is being prepared for investment.

To upgrade the 689km of the above-mentioned 2-lane highway to a complete 4-lane one (the Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh highway alone is 26km long and has a complete 6-lane scale), a total investment of nearly 87,500 billion VND is needed. Of which, the State capital is more than 82,500 billion VND, and the investor capital is nearly 5,000 billion VND.

Regarding the limited 4-lane divergent expressways, the Ministry of Transport said the investment scope is more than 2,140km. Of which, 435km have been exploited, 1,385km are under construction, and 321km are being prepared for investment.

To upgrade according to the planned scale (4 or 6 or 8 full lanes, depending on the scale of each route) requires more than 425,700 billion VND, of which: State capital is more than 412,500 billion VND, investor capital is more than 3,100 billion VND.

In addition to the 2,141km of expressway mentioned above, there are currently 2 sections of the North-South expressway in the east that are being exploited with a complete 4-lane scale that need to be studied for expansion, including: Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway expanded to 8 lanes, with a total investment of more than 22,220 billion VND; Phan Thiet - Dau Giay Expressway expanded from 4 to 6 lanes, with a total investment of about 7,500 billion VND.

Total capital needs are estimated at nearly VND494,600 billion to upgrade all 2-lane and 4-lane limited expressways to full scale, but this is difficult.

“However, in the context of limited state capital, it is difficult to immediately balance VND494,592 billion17 of the state budget to invest in and upgrade the diverging expressways in the current period, affecting the goal of completing 5,000 km as set out in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress,” the Ministry of Transport assessed.

Event - The capital for upgrading the highway is very large, the Ministry of Transport proposed to divide the implementation into phases. — Up to now, the whole country has exploited about 1,892km of highways, is building 1,802km, is preparing to invest in about 805km, and is researching to invest in about 729km of highways.

Due to the large amount of work to be done and the capital to be mobilized, the Ministry of Transport has proposed a number of principles and criteria to determine the priority order of investment and upgrading of divergent expressways. In particular, for 2-lane divergent expressways, when upgraded, they must reach a minimum scale of 4 complete lanes according to standards and regulations; For 4-lane divergent expressways, when upgraded, they must reach the scale according to the approved planning.

In particular, the two priority groups that need to be focused on are the North-South expressways in the East, especially some sections with rapidly increasing transportation demand, and expressways that are being exploited and invested in on a 2-lane scale with rapidly increasing transportation demand.

Priority order of 4 highway groups

On that basis, the Ministry of Transport proposed the priority order of investment in upgrading highways according to 4 groups:

Group 1: Investing in upgrading 5 expressways in urgent need. Preliminary total investment is over 55,300 billion VND (state capital over 15,000 billion VND, investor capital nearly 40,300 billion VND). This group includes the expressways: La Son - Hoa Lien (66km long, needing over 3,000 billion VND), Cam Lo - La Son (98km long, needing about 7,000 billion VND); Cao Bo - Mai Son (15km long, needing about 2,000 billion VND); Trung Luong - My Thuan (51km long); Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh (26km long, needing about 7,950 billion VND)

Group 2: Investing in upgrading 3 expressways to meet transportation needs and operate synchronously with adjacent expressway sections that have been exploited and are being invested in with a scale of 4 lanes.

This group includes: Upgrading the 83km Yen Bai - Lao Cai section of the Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway from 2 lanes to 4 complete lanes; upgrading the Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi section (40km long) from 2 lanes to 4 lanes; upgrading the 12km Ninh Binh - Hai Phong expressway through Hai Phong and Thai Binh province to 4 lanes. The total state capital requirement is approximately VND 18,700 billion.

Group 3: Upgrading the remaining 2-lane diverging expressways to a complete 4-lane scale, with a preliminary capital requirement of about VND 50,837 billion from the central budget.

The expressways that need to be upgraded include: Tuyen Quang - Ha Giang Expressway Phase 1 (104km long); Hoa Binh - Moc Chau Expressway Phase 1 (66km long, through Hoa Binh province 34km and Son La province 32km); Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway Phase 1 (93km long, currently investing in 22km of 4 limited lanes and 71km of 2 lanes; The route connecting Tan Thanh border gate and Coc Nam border gate is 17km long, from 2 lanes to 4 lanes; Upgrading the Chon Thanh - Duc Hoa section (84km long) from 2 lanes to 4 complete lanes.

Group 4: Upgrade remaining limited 4-lane diverging expressways.

According to preliminary calculations, the plan to upgrade according to the planning scale requires additional State capital of about 410,572 billion VND.

According to the Ministry of Transport, currently, the limited 4-lane divergent expressways are still being operated effectively, basically meeting transportation needs. Therefore, except for some sections that urgently need to be upgraded (belonging to Group 1 projects), the remaining sections are recommended to focus on completing investment in projects such as rest stops, vehicle weight inspection stations, ITS systems, etc.

Event - The capital for upgrading the highway is very large, the Ministry of Transport proposed to phase the implementation (Figure 2). — The Ministry of Transport proposed that the Government immediately invest in upgrading 5 expressways in urgent need.

Proposal to allocate more capital and promptly implement urgent projects

On that basis, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Government allocate about 7,000 billion VND from the central budget to invest in upgrading the Cam Lo - La Son section to a complete 4-lane scale, meeting the basic requirements for completion by the end of 2025.

The Ministry of Transport also recommended that competent authorities promptly approve and submit to the National Assembly for consideration and decision on solutions to handle difficulties and obstacles in the BOT traffic project as proposed by the Ministry of Transport, as a basis for investment research and upgrading the Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi section to a complete 4-lane scale.

At the same time, the Ministry of Transport proposed that competent authorities allocate about 18,683 billion VND to invest in upgrading the Yen Bai - Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi, Ninh Binh - Hai Phong sections to reach the scale of 4 complete lanes mentioned in group 2.

The Ministry of Transport proposed that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Transport to accelerate the progress of investment and upgrading the La Son - Hoa Lien, Cao Bo - Mai Son, Trung Luong - My Thuan sections; propose that the Ministry of Transport coordinate with the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises and the Hai Phong City People's Committee in the process of researching, preparing for investment and upgrading the Yen Bai - Lao Cai and Ninh Binh - Hai Phong expressways through Hai Phong city.

For the remaining 2-lane expressways (Hoa Binh - Moc Chau, Dong Dang - Tra Linh, Tuyen Quang - Ha Giang, Chon Thanh - Duc Hoa, the route connecting Tan Thanh and Coc Nam border gates under the expressway construction investment project from Huu Nghi - Chi Lang border gate), the Ministry of Transport recommends that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with localities to review and study the synchronous investment in additional works serving exploitation; select appropriate traffic organization options to improve exploitation efficiency and ensure traffic safety.

For public investment projects, study the service fee collection plan according to regulations; in case the fee is not collected, study the appropriate traffic flow and regulation plan to ensure effective and safe exploitation. Investment and upgrading to complete scale will be studied in the period of 2026 - 2030 when the capital source is balanced.

It is recommended that the Ministry of Transport coordinate with localities to review transportation needs and report to competent authorities for consideration of allocating capital to upgrade some limited 4-lane expressway sections with high transportation demand to reach the full scale according to the planning in the period of 2026 - 2030; the remaining limited 4-lane sections will be upgraded after 2030.

For the remaining limited 4-lane divergent expressways, it is recommended that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Transport to review and evaluate the overall traffic organization measures for the routes in operation to meet the requirements of safe and effective operation, reduce traffic congestion and accidents; strengthen traffic inspection and control, and strictly handle traffic violations on expressways...

In addition, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to study and advise on balancing appropriate capital sources for early investment implementation; assign the People's Committee of Hoa Binh province to speed up the progress of preparing a pre-feasibility study report to upgrade the Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh expressway section .

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