Traffic congestion on a section of National Highway 13 in HCMC’s Thu Duc City. Nearly VND10 trillion is needed to upgrade a 5.5-kilometer section of National Highway 13 in the city - PHOTO: LDO
HCMC – A project to upgrade and expand a 5.5-kilometer section from the Binh Phuoc Intersection to Binh Trieu Bridge of National Highway 13 in Thu Duc City will need an investment of nearly VND10 trillion, according to the HCMC Department of Transport.
The department on April 9 said the investment plan for the project, set to be executed in the 2021-2025 period, is being drawn up, Lao Dong newspaper reported.
The investment for the project will be sourced from the city’s budget. Of the total, VND1.3 trillion will be used for construction, VND8.1 trillion for site clearance and the remainder for consulting, management, infrastructure relocation and backup.
National Highway 13 is a backbone to connect HCMC and Binh Duong Province. The section in Binh Duong has been expanded to six lanes and may be eight lanes in the upcoming period, while the section in HCMC, that sees traffic congestion on a daily basis, has yet to be upgraded.
The project to expand the section from the Binh Phuoc Intersection to the Binh Trieu Bridge is part of the Binh Trieu 2 project, which was kicked off 20 years ago.
The HCMC government initially planned to expand the section to 32 meters and later increased it to 53 and 60 meters with an investment of more than VND4.7 trillion. Due to a lack of capital, the city decided to expand the section to 43 meters at a cost of nearly VND3.2 trillion. However, the project has yet to be executed.
In 2017, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee issued Resolution 437/2017 requiring a suspension of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) format on the road.
As a result, many projects which were proposed to be developed under the BOT and build-transfer models, including the National Highway 13 section expansion project, would use the city’s budget, according to the municipal Department of Transport.
