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Many vehicles slowly travel on National Highway 1A from Binh Dien Bridge to Nguyen Van Linh roundabout, Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. |
In order to reduce traffic pressure, Ho Chi Minh City has planned to upgrade and expand bridges and roads for many years but the projects still have not been started or have not been finished yet.
Amid the obstacles, a draft resolution was released to replace Resolution 54 which allows Ho Chi Minh City to apply BOT contracts for investment, upgrade and expansion of road projects, including overhead roads.
Ho Chi Minh City also proposed a mechanism to increase the ratio of state capital in projects from the current level of 50 percent to 70 percent because the compensation for site clearance of many traffic projects accounts for more than 50 percent of the total investment capital.
Besides, HCMC proposed a cash payment mechanism under the form of BT to organize bidding, selecting investors having the financial capacity to participate in the projects.
The fact showed that BOT and BT forms have attracted active participation from investors. In the period of 2005-2020, Ho Chi Minh City implemented 22 projects with a total investment capital of VND51 trillion (US$2.2 billion).
Therefore, the re-application of BOT and BT forms for projects and deferred payment using the city budget to investors will have many advantages and be more suitable than the implementation of traffic projects under other forms of Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) and Build- Lease- Transfer (BLT) contracts and the method of using the land fund for paying back investment capital to investors.
According to Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport Phan Cong Bang, if the draft resolution is approved, the current obstacles and difficulties will be removed, thereby the transport sector will urgently call for investments in expansion projects of national highways and inter-regional roads, creating a driving force for socio-economic development for Ho Chi Minh City in particular and the region in general.
