Slow progress in approving the investment project to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway

The investment project to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway under the PPP method is expected to be approved in June 2025, but is currently behind schedule due to many procedural problems, especially in negotiations with localities.

Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway

According to the Vietnam Road Administration, Project Management Board 7 has not yet completed the documents to submit to the Ministry of Construction for appraisal of the feasibility study report, making it difficult to ensure the proposed progress. The main reason is that the process of obtaining opinions and agreements from localities has been prolonged, in the context that provinces and cities are focusing on organizing and rearranging the apparatus after merging administrative units.

To speed up the progress, the Vietnam Road Administration recommends that the Ministry of Construction request relevant localities to urgently complete the necessary agreement documents. Specifically:

- The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will soon have a written agreement on the project scope, scale, and construction solutions on the route such as service roads, overpasses, intersections, and residential underpasses.

- Long An Provincial People's Committee will soon have a document agreeing on compensation price and dumping location.

- Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee shall soon issue a document agreeing on the scope, scale, and works on the route; compensation unit price; and agree with the existing investor of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway on the expansion plan; and the investment plan for rest stops.

According to the Vietnam Road Administration, after more than 12 years of operation, traffic volume on the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway has increased by more than 35%, reaching more than 52,000 vehicles/day and night and can exceed 50% during peak holiday seasons.

The expansion project has a total preliminary investment of nearly 39,800 billion VND. Of which:

- The Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong section will be expanded from 4 to 8 lanes, the roadbed will be 41m wide, the design speed will be 120km/h. In the future, the investment will be completed according to the planned scale with the section from Cho Dem - Ring Road 4 with a scale of 12 lanes; the section from Ring Road 4 - Trung Luong with a scale of 10 lanes.

- The Trung Luong - My Thuan section will be expanded from 4 limited lanes to 6 lanes according to the planned scale, with a design speed of 100km/hour.

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Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/cham-tien-do-phe-duyet-du-an-dau-tu-mo-rong-duong-cao-toc-tphcm-trung-luong-my-thuan-post801429.html