North-South highway plan adjusted
The Ministry of Transport has decided to adjust its construction plan for the North-South Expressway linking Hà Nội and HCM City due to a funding shortfall. Phạm Hữu Sơn, director general of Transport Engineering Design Inc, the project’s consultant, said previously the MoT had set a target of completing the 1,372km of North-South road by 2020 and proposed that the Government set aside US$3.08 billion for a Public Private Partnership model. However, in accordance with the State’s medium-term public investment plan, about VNĐ70 trillion from Government bonds will be allocated to the MoT for all projects, including some sections of the expressway. “If all the capital is spent on the North-South Expressway, the other projects will have to stop because of capital shortage,” Sơn told Vietnamplus.vn online newspaper.
