Cat Lai Bridge - the project that people are waiting for

Over the past years, the overload situation at Cat Lai ferry has occurred continuously, especially during holidays and Tet. Photo: Pham Tung

More than 2 decades of waiting

Cat Lai Bridge is one of the road bridge projects connecting Dong Nai with Ho Chi Minh City that has been most awaited by the people of the two localities for a long time. In particular, this bridge is expected to create a big push for the development of Nhon Trach new urban area. On the other hand, according to the planning, Cat Lai Bridge is also an important item forming a traffic connection route from Long Thanh International Airport to Ho Chi Minh City via provincial road 25C.

Since 2003, the Cat Lai Bridge Project has had an investment policy for construction. However, later, because the two localities could not reach an agreement, the project could not be implemented.

Nearly 14 years later, in May 2017, the Prime Minister issued a document approving the supplement to the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Development Plan to 2020 and vision after 2020 at the request of the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction ). By August 2019, the Prime Minister issued a document agreeing to assign the People's Committee of Dong Nai province as the competent state agency to implement the Cat Lai Ferry Replacement Bridge Project under the form of public-private partnership (PPP), build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract. However, to date, the Cat Lai Bridge Project has not yet been realized for construction.

With the goal of enhancing inter-provincial and inter-regional traffic connectivity, recently, Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City have had many meetings to implement the Cat Lai Bridge Project.

In the context that Long Thanh Airport will be put into commercial operation in the first half of 2026, it is extremely necessary to promote the early implementation of the Cat Lai Bridge Project to form an additional traffic route connecting this airport with Ho Chi Minh City, sharing the traffic volume with the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway, which is currently overloaded.

According to Provincial Party Committee member and Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha, both localities have basically agreed on the necessity of implementing the project. "The goal of Dong Nai province is to start the Cat Lai Bridge Project in 2026 and complete and put it into operation by the end of 2028," said Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha.

According to the Provincial People's Committee, the priority investment plan for the Cat Lai Bridge Project will be implemented under the PPP form, in which the Cat Lai bridge part will be implemented under a BOT contract.

Choose the optimal investment option

On September 9, 2025, the Provincial People's Committee had a working session with Construction Corporation No. 1 (CC1) to listen to this enterprise's report on the proposal for the Cat Lai Bridge Construction Project.

According to CC1 representative, the enterprise proposed a project with a total route length of more than 11.6km, of which Cat Lai bridge is 4.7km long, with a preliminary total investment of more than 18.8 trillion VND (excluding interest during construction). Regarding the investment form, CC1 proposed to invest in the form of PPP, in which option 1 is BOT and BT (build - transfer) contracts paid by the state budget, option 2 is BT contract paid by the state budget and option 3 is BT contract paid by land fund.

Previously, in July 2025, the authorities of Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City worked to discuss the project's investment plan, form, and capital sources. Accordingly, the two localities agreed to request the unit assigned to prepare the project preparation documents, the Dong Nai Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board, and the consulting unit to study investment plans in the direction of implementation in a project in the form of public-private partnership (PPP, BOT contract). To ensure synchronization in the construction progress of the bridge and approach road, the state budget will support the site clearance and investment costs at the maximum rate prescribed by law. In case the financial plan is not guaranteed and the project must be divided into a PPP BOT contract for the Cat Lai bridge section and 2 public investment capital component projects (or BT depending on the actual situation of each locality) for the approach roads at both ends of the bridge, the 2 localities also agree to develop a detailed implementation plan to ensure synchronization in construction progress, avoiding the situation where the bridge is completed but the approach roads are not finished, negatively affecting the operation, exploitation and toll collection process of the project.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Duong Van Hieu, recently, the Department of Construction of Dong Nai province and the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City have coordinated to review and unify the centerline of the Cat Lai Bridge Project to update the planning projects of the two localities. Up to now, Ho Chi Minh City has approved the 1/2,000 scale zoning plan of subdivision 6 of Thu Duc city. Meanwhile, Dong Nai province has updated the adjusted master plan of the new urban area of Nhon Trach which is being appraised by the Ministry of Construction.

According to Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha, the Provincial People's Committee has assigned the Department of Construction to coordinate with relevant agencies to complete the project dossier so that the Provincial Party Committee can report to the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee. After approval, the dossier will be submitted to the Provincial People's Council to approve the project investment policy.

Pham Tung

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202509/cau-cat-lai-du-an-duoc-nguoi-dan-cho-doi-8ed1820/