Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway is proposed to be expanded to 8 lanes

DNHN - The Project Management Board 7 determined that the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Motorway does not meet the current and future transportation needs at its current scale.

It is proposed that the 62-kilometer-long highway connecting Ho Chi Minh City - Long An and Tien Giang be expanded to eight lanes, with two emergency lanes, at a cost of nearly 10,000 billion VND, with completion anticipated in four years. Recently, the consulting unit provided the Project Management Board 7, the Ministry of Transport (the investor), and the People's Committee of Long An province with an update on the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong motorway.

The HCM City - Trung Luong Motorway has four lanes, two emergency lanes, a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and has been operational for thirteen years. Since 2019, when the road stopped collecting tolls, the number of vehicles passing through has increased by approximately 30%, to more than 50,000 vehicles per day and night, resulting in frequent highway congestion and accidents.

The Project Management Board 7 determined that the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Motorway does not meet the current and future transportation needs at its current scale. As a result, it is urgent to examine the feasibility of investing in the expansion of this motorway by the plan, to meet the traffic demand along the route and support the socioeconomic development of the Mekong Delta region and the entire nation.

According to the consulting unit, the expanded motorway will have a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour, and approximately 200 hectares of land have been cleared in Phase 1. The project will be executed in its initial form. The public-private sector has a budget of over 9,700 billion Vietnamese Dong.

The project traverses Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, and Tien Giang along a distance of approximately 39.6 kilometers. Regarding the scope of the investment, the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong motorway will be expanded in phase 2 by four additional lanes, bringing the total to eight lanes for the motorway and two lanes for emergency stops.

It is anticipated that construction will commence in 2025, be organized, completed, and put into operation in 2027.

According to Project Management Board 7, the investment project to reduce traffic congestion is being completed by its original schedule.

Together with other ongoing transport projects in the region, it will form a complete transport network in the southern key economic region and contribute to meeting the needs of the city. The demand for transport from the western provinces to Ho Chi Minh City, the Southeast region, and the rest of the country's provinces and cities...

In a previous letter to the Prime Minister, Deo Ca Group proposed expanding the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Motorway to eight lanes with a total investment of more than 5,300 billion VND through a public-private partnership. Which budget capital is 2,650 billion VND (representing 50%), investor equity is 406 billion VND, and credit institutions and business cooperation contracts (BCC) capital is 2,300 billion VND.

Middle of last year, the Cienco 6 - Coteccons - Thuan Viet Joint Venture also requested permission from the Ministry of Transport to oversee the preparation of pre-feasibility and feasibility reports for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong motorway expansion project using the PPP method. This consortium commits to preparing research reports and submitting them for approval to the appropriate state agencies.

Phuong Mai (t/h)