At the Conference of the Coordinating Council for the Mid-Northern Mountainous Region, which combined the announcement of the regional planning for the period 2021-2030 and the vision towards 2050, held today (May 24) in Phu Tho, the Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, presented the implementation status of some important projects and regional connectivity.
Conference of the Coordinating Council for the Mid-Northern Mountainous Region. (Photo: MPI)
According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, in the past time, the Prime Minister has prioritized allocating resources to invest in many large-scale expressway projects, contributing to changing the face of the region’s infrastructure. Among them, the project for the construction of Sa Pa Airport, Lao Cai Province (under the BOT form) has completed site clearance for phase 1. The project has not yet selected an investor. Lao Cai Province is adjusting the investment policy of the project to increase the State budget capital participation in the project.
In terms of scale, Sa Pa Airport will be built to meet the standards of a class 4C airport with a capacity of 1.5 million passengers per year. The total investment is VND 4,208 billion, of which VND 2,103 billion is from the State budget.
The project for the construction of the Tuyen Quang – Phu Tho expressway, connecting to the Noi Bai – Lao Cai expressway, has been basically completed and put into operation on December 24, 2023, adding about 40 km of expressway with 4 lanes, thus connecting to the Tuyen Quang – Ha Giang expressway.
“For the Tuyen Quang – Ha Giang expressway project, the two localities are reviewing and proposing a plan to expand it to a complete 4-lane scale, while extending it from Bac Quang (Ha Giang) to Ha Giang city,” said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.
Investment in the Dong Dang – Tra Linh expressway project. (Photo: VGP)
The Minister of Planning and Investment also said that the project for the construction of the Dong Dang (Lang Son) – Tra Linh (Cao Bang) expressway is facing some difficulties and problems. Specifically, the land use target in Lang Son Province by 2025 needs to increase by 188 hectares of traffic land. The procedure for converting forest land use purposes takes a lot of time. The ability to mobilize capital of the investor is also difficult, so the project is adjusting the investment policy to increase the State budget capital participation by VND 3,220 billion. This project is expected to complete phase 1 with a length of 93 km in 2025 (the whole line is 121 km long)
Notably, according to the Minister of Planning and Investment, the entire line of the Hoa Lac – Hoa Binh – Moc Chau (Son La) expressway project has not yet started construction and is behind the approved schedule.
In addition, ministries and branches are also studying investment plans for some projects: the route connecting Ha Giang with the Noi Bai – Lao Cai expressway, the Doan Hung – Cho Ben route, phase 2 of the Noi Bai – Lao Cai expressway, the Bac Kan – Cao Bang expressway route, the Son La – Dien Bien – Tay Trang international border gate expressway route, and studying the investment in the electrified railway project from Lao Cai to Hanoi – Haiphong.
Localities are reviewing and developing plans to upgrade the scale of expressways to complete 4 lanes, supplement connecting routes and intersections to promote the efficiency of expressways in the area.
