Ho Chi Minh City needs more than 30,000 billion VND to close Ring Road 2

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has just sent an urgent document to the City People's Committee reporting on the implementation of projects to close Ring Road 2.

The Ho Chi Minh City traffic development plan to 2020 and vision after 2020 was approved by the Prime Minister in 2013, Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 2 has a total length of 64km with a scale of 6-10 lanes. Up to now, the city has invested in construction and put into operation about 50km. Including the following sections: National Highway 1 from Go Dua to An Suong, 13.5km long; National Highway 1 from An Suong to An Lac, 13.5km long; Nguyen Van Linh Street, 12.4km long; and the section from Zone A intersection to Phu Huu Bridge on Vo Chi Cong Street, 11km long.

Currently, the remaining 14km is being studied and invested in by Ho Chi Minh City and divided into 4 sections. Of which, only section 3, 2.7km long from Pham Van Dong Street to Go Dua intersection (Thu Duc City), has been implemented since 2017 under the BT (build-transfer) form, with a total capital of more than 2,700 billion VND.

However, this project is also stuck in the site clearance stage and has not completed the project adjustment procedures, so construction has had to stop since March 2020 when it has only reached 44% of the volume. This section is expected to be cleared in 2024 and completed in 2025.

Section 3 of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 2 closed project is 2.7km long. The section from Pham Van Dong Street to Go Dua intersection has been abandoned for many years due to land clearance problems and incomplete project adjustment procedures. Photo: Hoang Giam

The remaining 3 sections with a total length of 11.3km, Ho Chi Minh City is currently in the process of preparing procedures for implementation.

With a 3.5 km long section 1, from Phu Huu bridge to Vo Nguyen Giap street. The City Department of Transport has updated and completed the project's pre-feasibility study report with a total investment of about 9,328 billion VND (of which the cost of site clearance according to the 67m planned road boundary is about 6,675 billion VND).

The Ho Chi Minh City Appraisal Council has approved the project's pre-feasibility study report and is expected to submit it to the City People's Council for decision on the project's investment policy at its meeting this September. The project will start construction in the second quarter of 2025 and be completed in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Section 2 is 2.8 km long, from Hanoi Highway to Pham Van Dong Street. The City Department of Transport has also completed the pre-feasibility study report for this section with a total capital of VND4,543 billion (land clearance cost of about VND1,956 billion).

To invest in this section, the City Department of Transport recommends that the City People's Committee assign the Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Finance to review and balance the city's budget capital (including additional medium-term public investment capital); thereby advising and proposing that the City People's Committee consider arranging a medium-term capital plan for the period 2021 - 2025 to invest in project implementation. In case the budget capital cannot be balanced, the City People's Committee is recommended to approve the investment policy to implement the project according to an investment method other than the city budget capital (including studying methods of BT investment with deferred payment from the budget).

On that basis, the Department of Transport will report to the People's Committee to submit to the City People's Council for consideration and decision on the project investment policy (expected in the fourth quarter of 2023) to implement and complete the project in the period from now to 2027.

Section 4 is 5.3 km long from National Highway 1 to Nguyen Van Linh Street, with a total investment of about 16,417 billion VND (of which the cost of site clearance according to the planned road width of 60m is about 13,190 billion VND. Due to difficulties in medium-term budget capital for the period 2021-2025, the City Department of Transport proposed to divide the investment of section 4 into 2 phases.

Specifically, phase 1 (2023-2027) will build the section from Vo Van Kiet to Nguyen Van Linh Street with a length of 3.4km, with a total investment of about VND 8,972 billion.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport proposed that the City People's Committee assign the Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Finance to advise and propose to the City People's Committee to arrange a medium-term capital plan for the period 2021-2025 to implement this section. In case the budget capital source is not balanced, the Department of Transport proposed that the City People's Committee approve the investment of section 4 (phase 1) using investment methods other than the city budget (including studying methods of BT investment with deferred payment from the budget).

Phase 2 (2026 - 2030) will build the section from National Highway 1 to Vo Van Kiet Street, 1.9km long, with a total investment of about 7,445 billion VND.

The construction site of Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 2 has been abandoned for many years . The structure of the project in section 3 of Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 2 has rusted and become abandoned due to the suspension of construction since March 2020. According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, this project will be resolved to restart in the near future.

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