(BDT) On September 29th, 2019, the Traffic Opening Ceremony of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway was held by Bac Giang-Lang Son BOT Joint Stock Company, a member of Deo Ca Group. The completed project is connected to Hanoi - Bac Giang Expressway, forming a seamless 180 km long highway connecting to the Northeastern region.
The new technology in construction to solve the problem of stabilizing talus in case of passing through mountainous terrain is applicable to the Investor of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway
The completion of road in a record time has confirmed the capacity of Vietnamese investors and contractors in the opportunity to participate in the 8 component projects of the North-South Expressway Project in the East, preparing to select investors in coming time.
Story of Rescue
It is not as lucky as many other BOT transport projects, Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project faces too many obstacles.
More than 2 years ago (April 2017), Deo Ca Group - as a “Recuing Investor”, unclogged obstacles for the Project, gave a time target for traffic opening of Bac Giang - Lang Son at the end of 2019 in the doubt of the investor community as well as the media. This is understandable because at that time, the project was facing many problems.
Back in time, on October 30th, 2014, the Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project was approved by the Government for investment under the official letter No. 2167/TTg-KTN. On April 9th, 2015, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) approved the investment under Decision 1249/QD-BGTVT in which assigned BOT Bac Giang - Lang Son Joint Stock Company to implement project.
The project consists of 2 components. The first component is Enhancement of surface of National Highway 1, section of Km1 + 800 - Km106 + 500 with a total length of about 110 km (referred to as the National Highway 1 Component). Component 2 is New construction of Bac Giang - Lang Son City Expressway, section of Km45 + 100 - Km108 + 500. The total investment cost of the whole project is of VND 12,189 billion.
The project was commenced in 2015. However, because the former investors are poor in financial resources and management capacity, the project had been delayed for nearly 2 years. Many investors do not contribute enough charter capital, resulting banks fails not disbursing loans. Due to the lack of capital, a series of works were delayed. By June 2017, the National Highway 1 Component only reached 13% of the output and the Expressway component was not deployed. The site clearance has not been performed, internal investors were disunited, financial capacity is not assured, the banks suspended disbursement, the project is at risk of collapse.
In June 2017, based on the report to the Ministry of Transport, the new investor of Deo Ca Group was invited by the Bac Giang - Lang Son BOT Joint Stock Company to participate in proposal of solutions to implement and unclog the obstacles from the project. In addition to handling a series of legal problems, the key tasks to be prioritized include: alignment, arrangement of public service routes, handling of financial facility, eliminating the poor contractors in qualification, disbursement of a series of contractors. A series of drastic measures along with debt repayment to help contractors as “be between life and death”, the project is gradually revived.
Since March 2018, the National Highway 1 Component was completed and put into operation to help to enhance transport capacity, minimize traffic accidents on the National Highway 1 section passing through the areas of both provinces of Bac Giang and Lang Son
Up to now (September 2019), Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway component was completed with a total length of nearly 64 km, a width of 25m, including 4 lanes and 2 emergency lanes at a design speed of 100 km per hour, after more than 2 years of the official deploying date for construction. The expressway is in parallel with National Highway 1A, when completed, it helps to shorten the travelling time from Hanoi to Lang Son down to more than 2 hours compared to the former travelling time of more than 3 hour.
According to the initial plan, the project schedule is 5-year but it was delayed for 2 years. However, after Deo Ca Group joined in, the Project not only compensated for the delayed progress, but also reached the finish ahead of schedule compared to the plan approved by the MOT. This result has eliminated the stagnation of expressway projects in Vietnam, when no project could be completed before 5 years. According to the evaluation of many experts on bridges and roads, the Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project completed within over 2 years, it is considered as a feat!
It is not only a record of construction duration, the project including very difficulty packages is entirely undertaken by the domestic contractors is also a remarkable achievement. Some typical problems from the Project such as: the works passing through the mountainous terrain, the solution of stabilizing talus is the most difficult problem. In fact, this story caused many projects such as Ha Long - Van Don, Noi Bai - Lao Cai encountered problems affecting traffic and finance. The investor of the Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project has bravely applied new technologies to the Project. Anti-sliding for stability maintenance of roof of talus is applied under the technology of spraying with soil and grass seeds mixture to protect the slope surface. Grass seeds that have been sprayed into the soil have grown lush so far. Of course, more time is needed to verify the effectiveness, but the investor is now confident with the application of this technology.
Another key issue to ensure the project implementation schedule is the selection of capable, experienced and professional contractors in the construction organization, instead of choosing friendly contractors.
Capacities of domestic investors and contractors have been enhanced
Looking back on the process of “rescuing” the Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway project over the past 2 years, Mr. Vu Minh Hoang, Vice Chairman of Deo Ca Group, evaluated that the project has “finished” thanks to the attention, active support of local authorities and sharing and support of people of Bac Giang and Lang Son provinces when handing over 80% of the ground area just within 6 months, setting a record in the land acquisition of expressway projects. Mr. Hoang emphasized that the capacity and experience of domestic contractors and investors along with the close coordination with the competent state agency, People’s Committee of Lang Son Province during the solving problems, those are the decisive factors impacting upon the quality and progress of the Project.
In Mr. Hoang’s opinion, Deo Ca Group in particular, domestic investors in general, the deployment of expressway projects with the scale of VND tens of thousands of billion in the past time helps to experience and accumulate experience in financial capacity, construction solutions and project management skills. The domestic investors are able to fully take part in investment in the component expressway projects under the North-South Expressway Project in the East that the Ministry of Transport has just canceled the international bidding. The story is what financial resources in order that the domestic investors can participate in these projects.
Mr. Duong Van Can, General Secretary of Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors is also the same mind of the capacity of domestic contractors and investors that h been significantly improved.
Mr. Can said that the contract packages for construction of roads, bridges and tunnels are of high difficulty, Vietnamese contractors currently can fully meet them. However, the problems of domestic investors are the facility capital source. To solve this problem, the State should have a mechanism to create the funding source for investors (allowing commercial banks to provide preferential loans, unsecured loans) because this is not purely a commercial issue, but also brings national interests. On the other hand, the investors may make joint venture, affiliate together to increase the project deployment capacity.
By Tram Anh
https://baodauthau.vn/doanh-nghiep/nang-luc-nha-dau-tu-noi-nhin-tu-cao-toc-bac-giang-lang-son-110003.html
