Being a part of the eastern road system, Vietnam's North-South highway starts from Hanoi's Phap Van and ends at Vinh Long southern province's Cha Va (that is also the start of Can Tho Bridge project) with total length of 1,811 kilometres, which is shorter by 77 kilometres than National Road 1A.
In the period-end report on projecting North-South highway, which Vietnam Road Department sent to Ministry of Traffic and Transportation, the project consultant Transport Engineering Design Inc (TEDI) proposes to break the highway into 16 lines (equalling to 16 sub-projects) and divide the investment time into three phases. In which, the first phase from now to 2010 four road lines with total length of 222 kilometres and total estimated cost of 53.135 trillion dong will be built. In the second phase between 2011 and 2020 another 8 road lines with total 1,082 kilometres in length and 185 trillion dong in total cost would be built and the last phase (after 2020) the remaining two road lines of 507 kilometres and expansion of the Phap Van-Cau Gie road from four lanes to six lanes with total expense of 74.6 trillion dong would be taken up.
Apart from the 30-kilometre Phap Van-Cau Gie line being built, the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh 50-kilometre line and the Ben Luc-Trung Luong 37-kilometre line have been under construction and 13 remaining lines are seeking investment capital and investors. Totally, the cost for building North-South highway is estimated at 312.862 trillion dong.
As projected, the highway will be operational after 2036. Although each investment averages up to 173 billion dong for a kilometre and the capital refund time will be prolonged, the super project is still attractive for both domestic and foreign investors.
Mai Anh Tuan, vice head of Vietnam Road Department commenting on the period-end of North-South highway project said that the report not only provided the simplest contents on the highway so called "economic spine" but also pointed out the list of priority investments, policies and mechanism, which helped investors have more information on one of the best investment opportunity in infrastructure.
All aforementioned road lines of North-South highway project are subject to the traffic and transportation ministry's list of BOT sub-projects calling for investment and the national investment attraction list for the period of 2006-2010. This means that the ministry widened the investment door for all local and foreign investors under the different methods of Building-Operating-Transferring (BOT), Building-Transferring (BT), Building-Owner-Operating (BOO), Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and others into the project.
For urgency, the state plans to budget to invest in some lines (like the line from Da Nang to Quang Ngai) while Ministry of Traffic and Transportation will propose to boost the investment with the guideline of minimising the state's direct participation socialisation in the national project, confirmed the minister Nho Duc Thinh.
However, according to specialists, among 12 road lines that TEDI proposed investment from now to 2020, eight lines have relatively high feasibility because except for earnings from fee collection, investors still need a big help from Vietnamese state in terms of lending rate and land for the capital refund. Of which, two lines are under construction, other three lines such as Long Thanh-Dau Giay, Trung Luong-Can Tho, Da Nang-Quang Ngai could be started within 2009 at latest. The state also has sought investment capital from Vietnam Cement Corp, Bitexco and Song Da Corp for remaining four lines of Ninh Binh-Thanh Hoa, Thanh Hoa-Vinh, Dau Giay-Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet to Nha Trang.
Ngo Duc Thinh revealed that the short term investment opportunities in North-South highway project remain high. Total cost for each road line is up to tens of trillions of dong and the capital mobilisation lasts 20-40 years.
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