HCM City (VNA) – HCM City hasrecently called for private investment under the public-private partnership(PPP) model to kick off several key transport infrastructure projects under inthe context of a limited State budget amid increasing transport demand.

At a cost of nearly 3 trillion VND (133 million USD), the Thu Thiem 2 Bridgewith a length of 1,465m and six lanes started construction in early 2015 andwill be completed in April 2018 under build-transfer (BT) model. The bridgewill link districts 1 and 2 in order to create development for the Thu Thiem urbanarea and reduce traffic congestion.

In mid-2015, the municipal People’s Committee accepted to arrange 72 plots ofland for resettling people who had been removed to build the connecting roadbetween Vo Van Kiet Boulevard and HCM City – Trung Luong Expressway in Tan Kiencommune, Binh Chanh district. The project was started on October 2015 with first-phaseinvestment of around 1.6 trillion VND (71 million USD), excluding expenditurefor ground clearance. The project was expected to be constructed within 20months.

This road is expected to connect all transport to the highway with a fast road.

It also completes the city’s modern transport system through the city from CatLai intersection in Hanoi Highway, beginning point of HCM City – Long Thanh – DauGiay Expressway, through East-West Highway (Vo Van Kiet Boulevard) and to HCMCity - Trung Luong Expressway.

The project creates a good connection through the southeast provinces – HCMCity – Mekong Delta.

One of the intersections with the most traffic congestion is that of Southern SaigonBoulevard, Nguyen Van Linh Boulevard and Nguyen Huu Tho Street.

To cope with this congestion, the city authorities have agreed to invest 839billion VND (37.3 million USD) for the first phase of the project to easetraffic here. There will be two 480m tunnels built in the intersection.

After five years of delay, a flyover road Binh Tien through Vo Van KietBoulevard and Tau Hu and Doi canals, linking Districts 6 and 8, was finallyapproved with total investment of 3.5 trillion VND (155 million USD) during2016-2020. The project was approved in 2010 but due to limitations of landcompensation, it had been delayed.

The flyover road is expected to ease traffic congestion from downtown tosouthern Saigon urban area when series of bridges, such as Nguyen Tri Phuong,Nguyen Van Cu, Kenh Te, Y, Cha Va, are overloaded.

Other transport projects, such as one more exit from Nguyen Van Cu bridge to VoVan Kiet Boulevard, were kicked off in 2016 to ease congestion from District 8and Binh Chanh to District 5 and other downtown districts.

The project to link Pham Van Dong street with the intersection of Go Dua andNational Highway No 1 was also approved to complete Belt Road No 2.

Despite the fact that many important transport projects have been kicked off,HCM City still faces difficulties in exchanging land to transport infrastructureconstruction.

Under regulations, HCM City must have a clean land fund to bid. Money from suchbidding will be invested for transport infrastructure. However, due tolimitations of capital, the city hasn’t been able to create its own clean landfund. Exploitation of land along new roads faces the same problem as localauthorities do not have money for compensation.

Many enterprises are ready to pay money for land compensation, but themunicipal authorities are not allowed to appoint them to exploit such lands andthese clean lands must be bid.
“Such a legal frame work has restrictedattracting social investment for transport,” Bui Xuan Cuong, director of themunicipal Transport Department was quoted as saying in the Thoi bao Kinh teVietnam (Vietnam Economic Times)newspaper.

There are so many other important transport infrastructure projects stillwaiting due to limitation of funds, land and an out-of-date legal framework,such as a 9.5 trillion VND (422 million USD) project to expand National Road No22 to link HCM City and Tây Ninh province, rapid and green bus in Mai Chi Thoand Vo Van Kiet boulevards, 1.75 trillion VND (78 million USD) for undergroundparking plots in Le Van Tam Park, 740 billion VND (33 million USD) undergroundparking in Trong Dong Theatre in District 3, and 3.2 trillion VND (142 millionUSD) for Hoa Lu Stadium.-VNA