VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam Express Corporation (VEC), the biggest road and highway investor, has set a record in the number of highways with very high costs.

An analyst noted that the investment capital of the next highway projects developed by VEC are higher than previous ones. 

The Cau Gie – Ninh Binh Highway was built with investment of $8.6 million per kilometer in length. The figures are $6 million for the Noi Bai – Lao Cai, and $12 million for the Da Nang – Quang Ngai. 

It had to spend $18 million for every kilometer of the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Highway. The record high investment rate of $26 million per kilometer has been reported for the Ben Luc – Long Thanh Highway.

Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted its sources as saying that Ben Luc – Long Thanh is the most expensive highway in the country and its investment rate is “overly high” compared with the highways in China ($10.9 million) and the US ($17.4 million).

The investment rates at Ben Luc – Long Thanh varied for different sections of road. The 11-kilometer section of road had the investment rate of $60.7 million per kilometer, while the remaining 46.9 kilometers $17.84 million.

Nguyen Xuan Thanh, director of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, noted that the provisioning cost was very high at $5 million per kilometer, nearly equal to the construction costs, which pushed the total investment rate up.

Thanh attributed the high provisions to mismanagement, slow site clearance and the contractors’ incapability.

Also according to Thanh, in other countries, a highway costs $7-8 million per kilometer on average. He believes that if Vietnam can improve its management capability, it would be able to save millions of dollars for every kilometer of highway built.

Meanwhile, VEC blamed the Ben Luc – Long Thanh high investment rate of VND554 billion per kilometer on “natural conditions”.

A VEC’s representative said the highway goes through the Can Gio biosphere reserve area in HCM City, where the geological background is weak, and through many rivers and swampy areas. Therefore, it was necessary to build 20 kilometers of bridges and viaducts. 

Three big bridges have been built on the 11-kilometer section of highway from the km 21+744 to km 32+450, including two cable-stayed bridges of Binh Khanh and Phuoc Khanh.

Meanwhile, the investor had to spend big money for the site clearance to build the 47 kilometers of the highway which go through the densely populated areas in HCM City and Dong Nai province.

The highways have high investment rates, but low quality. Cracks and sinkholes were discovered just some days after the Noi Bai – Lao Cai, the longest highway in Vietnam, capitalized at $1.5 billion, was put into operation last year.

Dat Viet