No bidders for two North-South Expressway sections

By Doan Loan October 6, 2020 | 11:58 pm PT

A section of the La Son-Tuy Loan Expressway connecting Thua Thien Hue Province with Da Nang City which will be linked with the North-South Expressway. Photo by VnExpress/Vo Thanh.

Two out of five North-South Expressway sections to be built with private funding have not received any bids, according to the Ministry of Transport.

They are the 43-kilometer National Road 45 – Nghi Son section in Thanh Hoa Province and the 50-km Nghi Son – Dien Chau section between the province and Nghe An Province, both in the central region.

The five sections are to be built under a public-private partnership (PPP) model. Originally there were eight, but it was decided last year to publicly fund three of them after they failed to attract private investors.

The ministry will now extend the bid period for the two sections until December 12, and if they still fail to attract bids, the National Assembly will decide about funding.

The remaining three sections, again all in the central region, have each attracted two to three bids.

They are the Dien Chau-Bai Vot (49 km), Nha Trang-Cam Lam (49 km) and Cam Lam-Vinh Hao (79 km) sections.

The ministry will evaluate the bidders’ financial capability, experience, ability to mobilize capital, and the technical proposals and award contracts in December.

The winning bidders will then have six months to raise funding and begin construction.

The eastern cluster of the expressway has 11 sections running 653 kilometers.

It has received the highest priority as the government seeks to renovate the country’s outdated infrastructure to foster economic growth.

Its cost is estimated at VND100.8 trillion ($4.3 billion), with 78 percent coming from public coffers.

Construction has begun on six publicly funded sections.