HCMC – Dong Nai expressway parallel route unfinished after 5 years

Costing VND869 billion ($38.2 million), the route along the expressway that links Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbor Dong Nai Province was initially scheduled for completion after two years.

Built under the build-transfer (BT) format, the project comprises two sections: a 2.7-kilometer one to link Mai Chi Tho Boulevard and Do Xuan Hop Street in Thu Duc City and a 600-meter one to connect D11 Street in Thu Duct with Ring Road No.2, which will connect Thu Duc City and districts 7, 8, 12, Binh Tan, Hoc Mon and Binh Chanh to help ease chronic traffic congestion by preventing container trucks passing through inner-city areas.

The project also includes three bridges, drainage, and lighting systems.

It is expected to ease the pressure on An Phu Intersection in Thu Duc City and boost the investment progress for projects to serve the relocation plan for Thu Thiem New Urban Area in the city.

But five years after its construction, the route remains unfinished and vehicles from downtown HCMC still have to gather at An Phu Intersection.

A representative from HCMC’s Transport Department said the project is now 80 percent complete and obstacles related to site clearance and land fund payment procedures for the BT contract have caused the delays.

The HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway and the construction site of the parallel route on its right side in late 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Gia Minh

In 2015, HCMC-based Nam Rach Chiec Co. Ltd proposed building the parallel route under the BT format. A year later, HCMC’s administration decided to allow Nam Rach Chiec to commence with the project under the form of “choosing contractors in special cases,” which means no bidding was needed.

On April 28, 2017, the city signed a BT contract with the investor to carry out construction.

However, aside from Nam Rach Chiec, city-based Tien Phuoc JSC also took part as an investor, forming a joint-venture with Nam Rach Chiec. The consortium then established Nguyen Phuong Real Estate Co., Ltd. to perform contractual requirements.

The then city deputy chairman, Tran Vinh Tuyen, signed a decision for Nguyen Phuong to use a piece of land of more than 14.8 hectares in a relocation area for Nam Rach Chiec residential area in Thu Duc City as part of the BT contract.

However, as concluded later by the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV), at the time of making the decision, the city had yet to determine the value of land use rights, which means the monetary value of land use rights over a specified land area in a specified land use term, for the investor to conduct other projects on the land.

Then in 2019, as the contract expired and the project had yet to proceed, the SAV requested that the city administration review and adjust the BT contract.

The city has currently assigned the municipal Department of Natural Resources to work on procedures to withdraw the land area it had used to pay for the contract.

Regarding site clearance issues for building the route, Thu Duc City has been tasked with boosting progress.