Recently, Lao Dong Newspaper has had many articles about the Thai Ha BOT bridge project facing difficulties when it failed to achieve its revenue plan, leading to heavy losses.
Recently, Ha Nam voters requested to consider removing difficulties and obstacles related to the Thai Ha Bridge BOT project and invest in expanding and completing a section of the route with a length of about 1.3km within the scope of the Thai Ha Bridge approach road.
Voters reported that the investment project for the road connecting the Hanoi - Hai Phong Expressway with the Cau Gie - Ninh Binh Expressway (referred to as the Project connecting the two expressways) has been approved for investment by the Ministry of Transport. Accordingly, the project has a total length of 47.7 km, a scale of 4 lanes, divided into 2 component projects (through the two provinces of Hung Yen and Ha Nam).
Currently, Ha Nam and Hung Yen provinces have invested to ensure a scale of 4 lanes.
However, the approximately 1.3 km long section connecting from the end of component project 1 to the beginning of component project 2 within the scope of Thai Ha bridge approach road (Thai Ha bridge BOT project) is currently operating with a scale of 2 lanes.
If this section is not expanded, it will not be possible to ensure synchronous exploitation of the 4-lane scale along with the two component projects that the locality is investing in expanding, creating bottlenecks, potentially posing risks of traffic jams and accidents.
Voters requested the Ministry of Transport to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles for the Thai Ha Bridge BOT project; request investors to expand and complete the section of the route with a length of about 1.3km from a scale of 2 lanes (Bm/Bn = 11m/12m) to a scale of 4 lanes (Bm/Bn = 21.5m/22.5m); in case investors are not able to invest, they are requested to hand over the site to the People's Committee of Ha Nam province for investment.
Responding to this issue, the Ministry of Transport said that, implementing the conclusion of the Government Standing Committee, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with the State Bank of Vietnam to organize negotiations with investors and credit providing banks to agree on solutions to handle difficulties and obstacles and risk sharing responsibilities of the parties.
For the Thai Ha Bridge BOT Project, up to now, the Investor and the credit providing bank have agreed and proposed solutions to supplement state capital to support the project to ensure financial feasibility.
Currently, the Ministry of Transport is urgently synthesizing and completing the project and submitting it to competent authorities for consideration and decision.
In addition, implementing the conclusion of the Government Standing Committee, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is coordinating with relevant ministries and branches to draft a Law amending and supplementing a number of laws; in which, it is expected to amend and supplement a number of articles of the PPP Law to have sufficient legal basis when handling difficulties and problems of BOT projects signed contracts before the PPP Law was promulgated.
After being approved by competent authorities, the Ministry of Transport will coordinate with investors, project enterprises and relevant agencies to implement and remove difficulties for the project.
Based on voters' recommendations, on September 5, 2024, the Vietnam Road Administration (the agency signing the project contract) worked with the investor, project enterprise and competent authorities of Ha Nam province on the investment plan to expand the 1.3 km section within the scope of the Thai Ha bridge approach road.
At the meeting, the investor proposed to continue investing in expanding the 1.3 km section within the scope of the Thai Ha bridge approach road.
However, according to the assessment of the Vietnam Road Administration, in the condition that the toll revenue of the Project has decreased (only reaching 16% compared to the revenue in the contract), if additional investment is made to expand the 1.3 km section, the difficulties and obstacles of the project will increase (Document No. 6201/CDBVN-KHDT dated September 10, 2024 of the Vietnam Road Administration).
Therefore, the Ministry of Transport will continue to negotiate with investors and project enterprises to implement the plan to hand over the 1.3 km section to the locality for expansion investment, ensuring synchronous exploitation with the project of connecting the two expressways.
