On the Ministry of Construction's Information Portal, reader V.T. A reflected that Clause 3, Article 31 of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP stipulates: "The authority to approve the location, design of temporary connections and issue construction permits for national highways and local roads...".
Clause 4, Article 31 stipulates: "Organizations and individuals who need to temporarily connect submit dossiers in one of the forms directly, through postal services or online at the public service portal, submit dossiers to the competent authority specified in Clause 3 of this Article".
According to readers, the above regulation may give rise to 2 understandings. First, organizations and individuals must carry out 3 procedures including approval of location, temporary connection design and issuance of construction permits to be temporarily connected. Second, organizations and individuals only need to carry out 1 procedure according to Article 4 to be temporarily connected.
Readers also question whether local officials' guidance on temporary connection of procedures as above is correct or not?
Answering this content, the Vietnam Road Administration said that according to Article 31 of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP dated December 26, 2024 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Road Law and Article 77 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, temporary connections to national highways and local roads under exploitation are carried out to build service roads to serve transportation, exploitation of materials and transportation of construction equipment; serving national defense, security, disaster prevention and recovery and some other cases.
According to regulations, when the temporary connection period expires, organizations and individuals approved for temporary connection are responsible for removing and closing temporary connection points; restoring the original state of the road safety corridor; repairing road infrastructure damaged by temporary connection.
The Vietnam Road Administration said that this connection is temporary and is only implemented for a number of specific cases within a certain period.
Therefore, for temporary connections to national highways and local roads being exploited and used, there are no planning requirements, no regulations on the distance of intersections as in official connections.
Regarding the authority to implement the approval of the location of temporary connecting intersections, design of temporary connecting intersection works and issuance of construction permits for temporary connecting intersections, it is stipulated in Clause 3, Article 31 of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP and Clause 7, Article 23 of Decree No. 140/2025/ND-CP dated June 12, 2025 of the Government stipulating the demarcation of authority of local authorities at 2 levels in the field of state management of the Ministry of Construction.
According to the Vietnam Road Administration, the components of the requested dossier include the request document prepared according to Form No. 3, Appendix VI of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP, the construction drawing design dossier of the temporary connection intersection, and the traffic organization plan of the temporary connection intersection for competent authorities to consider and resolve administrative procedures to approve temporary connection.
The Vietnam Road Administration also said that the road law has its own regulations for connecting other roads to national highways and local roads being operated and used in the form of official connections.
Specifically, the consideration and approval of the location of the official connection intersection is carried out according to Article 30 of the Road Law and Articles 27, 28, 29, 30 of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP.
For national highways, the authority to approve the connection location belongs to the Provincial People's Committee. For expressways, the Ministry of Construction approves expressways under its management; Provincial People's Committees implement for local expressways.
Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP also stipulates separate templates for official connection work, including Template No. 01 and Template No. 02 of Appendix VI issued together with the decree.
Meanwhile, to simplify administrative procedures, in accordance with the nature of temporary connection intersections, temporary connections to national highways and local roads under operation are only regulated in Article 31, Form No. 03 and Form No. 04 of Appendix VI issued together with Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP.
At the same time, Circular No. 41/2024/TT-BGTVT was amended and supplemented in Circular No. 72/2025/TT-BXD dated December 31, 2025 of the Ministry of Construction, which does not stipulate the authority, content of administrative procedures related to approving the design of temporary connection intersections and licensing temporary connection construction.
Therefore, the approval of the location, design, and construction permit for the temporary connection intersection is carried out simultaneously in 1 administrative procedure according to Article 31 and Forms No. 03, 04 of Appendix VI issued together with Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP.
The Vietnam Road Administration affirmed that the case of separating into separate procedures including approving temporary connection intersections, approving the design of temporary connection intersections and licensing the construction of temporary connection intersections is not in accordance with the provisions of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP.
However, to facilitate organizations and individuals when implementing temporary connections to national highways and local roads being exploited, on May 24, 2026, the Ministry of Construction issued Report No. 176/BC-BXD submitting to the Government a draft decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP.
In which, the draft amends and supplements Article 31 and replaces Form No. 03, Form No. 04 of Appendix VI with new forms to clarify the application and approval document of the competent authority, including all 3 contents of approving the temporary connection position, approving the design of the temporary connection intersection and issuing a temporary connection construction permit.
