On July 31, 2020, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and delegation have a working visit with the Management Board of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project in Tien Giang Province.

The Prime Minister praises the Management Board and the contractors for their efforts to accelerate the construction progress

Since the project was resumed in March 2019, this is the third time Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc directly visited the construction site, directed and removed the remaining difficulties to ensure the goal of connecting this expressway by the end of 2020.

According to the report of Mr. Nguyen Tan Dong - General Director of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company at XL04 package (Than Cuu Nghia intersection), over the past time, the construction was adversely influenced by Covid-19 epidemic, drought and salinity intrusion in the Mekong Delta region, leading to scarcity of materials, hindering construction activities. However, the Management Board has worked with contractors, find all measures to overcome difficulties. So far, the project has basically completed the work of superimposed loading to handle weak ground on the main route. Some bidding packages have been unloading to deploy the next stages. In August 2020, some bidding packages will prepare for asphalt paving stage. Up to now, the implementation volume has been increased from 40% to nearly 60% (up 20%) compared with the last visit of Prime Minister in March 2020, ensuring the connection plan by the end of 2020 as directed by the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc listens to progress report of the project

The current difficulty of the project is that the Ministry of Transport and Tien Giang People's Committee have not agreed on the location of the toll station due to the concern about synchronous toll collection of the entire expressway route Ho Chi Minh - Trung Luong - My Thuan. The investor has repeatedly requested the competent State agency to determine the location of the toll station soon for construction. So far, the company has not received comments from the Ministry of Transport and Tien Giang People's Committee, this is one of the exceptional projects that have signed BOT contract and deployed construction without the determination of toll station’s location.

After listening to the report, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assessed that after 10 months of implementation (from September 26, 2019, the date Prime Minister came to check the project), the workload has greatly increased. The workload was only 10% in 10 years before, but only in the last 9 months it has increased by 50%, this is a great effort of investors, contractors, local authorities and related agencies. The Prime Minister praised Tien Giang province, commercial banks and especially Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company for their efforts to have positive results up to now.

The Prime Minister requested that Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway must be opened by the end of this year and asked the Ministry of Transport, Tien Giang province to handle investors' problems. Regarding the location of the toll collection station of the route, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Transport to conduct research and submit the plan to the Prime Minister in the next week for consideration and decision. “This is a very meaningful route for people in the Mekong Delta region as well as the socio-economic development of the region. I request the Ministry of Transport to continue to deploy My Thuan Bridge as soon as possible because the money is available; Assign the Ministry of Transport to undertake the implementation of My Thuan - Can Tho project, disburse all the allocated capital, and at the same time examine Can Tho - Ca Mau route, put it into the master plan 2021-2025 to complete the entire expressway route from Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan - Can Tho - Ca Mau”, the Prime Minister emphasized.

The South is currently in rainy season, although having to construct in unfavorable conditions, the contractor is still determined to work hard to ensure the connection plan by the end of 2020, ready to serve vehicles of less than 16 seats and vehicles of less than 2.5 tons during the Lunar New Year 2021.

By Minh Anh