Construction of HCM City’s ring road No 2 in Thu Duc District.

Tran Quang Lam, director of the Department of Transport, said the city has found it difficult to attract investment in transport infrastructure, especially ring roads, national highways and roads in inner districts.

These include the 64km, six-lane ring road No 2, whose last 11km stretch is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

According to the department, land compensation for the sections (of ring road No 2) from Phu Huu Bridge to Ha Noi Highway and from Binh Thai Intersection to Pham Van Dong Highway is estimated at VND5.1 trillion (US$221.8 million) and construction costs at VND2.7 trillion (US$117.4 million).

The department has suggested converting this BOT project into a public project, and Lam said this, if approved by the city People’s Council, would help complete the ring road in 2022.

The department has also asked for similarly converting works to upgrade and widen national highways No 1A, 13, 22, and 50.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the city People’s Committee, has green-lighted the proposal for the completion of ring road No 2 and instructed related departments and agencies to go ahead with the plan to convert BOT and BT projects to public projects.

He said by June the transport department has to complete the procedures for public investment in stages 1 and 2 of ring road No 2.

Its sub-project related to paying compensation for affected households should be undertaken using public funds while the sub-project related to its construction will be undertaken in public-private-partnership (PPP) form, he said.

The city has many infrastructure works and so relevant agencies should give priority to urgent ones which would help resolve traffic problems.

Each project should be carefully considered to identify suitable investment forms and construction schedules, he said.

Departments and agencies should consider ways to exploit lands along the urban railway network, expressways and ring roads, he said.

The effort must be led by the departments who would collaborate with district-level agencies, he said. The plans for exploiting the lands must be reported to the People's Committee by the end of the third quarter this year, he added. — VNS

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