The Ministry of Transport will invite tenders for eight subprojects under the public-private partnership (PPP) format of the North-South Expressway project in September this year. Work on these subprojects is scheduled to start in early 2020.

File photo of the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway, which is part of the North-South Expressway project. The Ministry of Transport will put up eight subprojects of the expressway for tender in September

Bidding documents are being prepared and the ministry is currently collecting feedback from other ministries and agencies. Meanwhile, technical assistance consulting units have finished their reports on inspecting the bidding documents.

The ministry will issue the bidding documents in April. Interested investors will then have two months to complete the documents.

Regarding subprojects that attract many investors who have already passed the prequalification round, the ministry will select a maximum of five investors with the highest scores to enter the next rounds.

According to the ministry, consultants have been chosen for these subprojects. Technical designs and financial estimates are scheduled for completion in the third quarter. Within the next two months, boundary poles for site clearance works will be handed over to the localities, and the site clearance is expected to be 50% complete by the end of the year.

The National Assembly earlier approved a plan to build 654 kilometers of the North-South Expressway in the 2017-2020 period, with a total investment of over VND118.7 trillion, VND55 trillion of it from the State budget and over VND63 trillion from the private sector. The expressway project has 11 subprojects, with eight subprojects under the PPP format and the other three using State capital.

As for the three subprojects using State capital---the Cao Bo-Mai Son and Cam Lo-La Son sections and My Thuan 2 bridge---tenders to select consultants have been completed, while technical designs and financial estimates are currently being made. The two sections will be constructed at the beginning of the third quarter.

SGT