Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the request while chairing a working session at the Government Headquarters in Hanoi on Tuesday morning, discussing measures to remove obstacles and promote the progress of the project. The meeting was attending by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung and leaders from the relevant ministries, agencies and the People's Committees of Tien Giang province – the competent State agency for the project.
Speaking at the meeting, PM Phuc emphasised the economic and political significance of the route with the Mekong Delta – a key economic region consisting of 13 provinces and with a population of more than 20 million people.
In addition to the route, the cabinet leader also informed that he has assigned the Ministry of Transport to preside over a study on a high-speed railway line for the region. Meanwhile, the regional waterway and logistics systems also need to be better developed, along with the seaports, to facilitate the Mekong Delta and the whole country’s development, the PM stressed, adding that local people have been awaiting the routes completion for a long time and the PM has issued multiple directions to promote the project implementation over the past time.
As a competent State agency for the project, Tien Giang province is responsible to the Government and Mekong Delta provinces for investment in building this expressway, he said, reiterating the requirement for opening to traffic the whole route by 2020 and inaugurating it a year later. In addition, the top requirement in ensuring the progress and quality of the project, it is crucial to prevent losses, negligent construction and unqualified designs.
Regarding procedures related to design appraisal and defining material prices, PM Phuc urged Tien Giang, the Transport Ministry and other public agencies to seek a final solution for the issues on the basis of the current laws. The capital construction investment procedures must be solved quickly, and first of all is approving the total investment is essential, he said.
The PM also praised Tien Giang in finishing 99.4% of the land clearance work, urging the province to complete this task on the basis of resolving the legitimate rights and interests of local people to have a clean site for continuous construction of the project. PM Phuc noted that this project must ensure progress, quality, efficiency, publicity, transparency and without corruption and negativity. The banks are responsible for providing sufficient and timely capital.
He asked the concerned agencies and functional units to better coordinate and regularly inspect to ensure a smooth workload on the project. Every month, the Ministry of Transport needs to cooperate with Tien Giang province to report to the PM on the project progress as well as other related works.
The Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project is implemented in the build–operate–transfer (BOT) form, stretching 51.1 km from the Than Cuu Nghia intersection (Chau Thanh district, Tien Giang) to the T-Junction with the National Highway No. 30 at An Thai Trung intersection (Cai Be district, Tien Giang ). In its first phase, the four-lane expressway measures 17 m wide and features 39 bridges on its main route.
