Business
HCM City overpass projects face financial problems
  • | laodong, dtinews.vn | August 31, 2019 07:10 AM
Five major overpass projects in HCM City have been left idle for years due to financial difficulties.

   

Congestion in HCM City


According to the prime ministerial approved transport development plan by 2020, HCM City will have five overpasses that are 70.7km long in total. These overpasses will help ease congestion at key locations. However, after 15 years, none of them has been completed.

Overpass number 1 is a key project that is expected to help deal with congestion around Tan Son Nhat Airport. In 2007, the South Korean GS E&C joined the BOT project and proposed to build a 9.5km long overpass at the cost of USD340m. Two years later, they dropped out because according to their calculation, the profits would not offset the cost.

Several investors have taken over the project in the past years but no one could stay long due to high ground clearance cost.

According to the Department of Transport, several investors in build-transfer projects want to exchange the infrastructure for lands, however, HCM City authorities also need land for many projects such as public parking lots. Moreover, the city budget is limited so they have to think carefully on which project is more necessary.

Vo Kim Cuong, former deputy head of the HCMC Chief Architect's Office, said it was important to build more overpasses as HCM City is lacking land and they couldn't open anymore road surface. HCM City authorities should have incentives to attract private investors.

Tran Quang Thang, head of the Institute of Economics and Management HCM City said, "The authorities should adjust the projects, dividing them into small parts. The plans must be concise and feasible."

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