The Ministry of Transport (MoT) recently sent Proposal 2841/TTr-BGTVT asking the prime minister to green-light the detailed planning of Hanoi region’s beltway 4 section south of national highway 18 - after procuring sufficient comments from relevant ministries, departments and local governments.

In respect to why the MoT was yet to establish the whole 136.6km Hanoi region’s beltway 4 project, the MoT Minister Ho Nghia Dung said: “First, it is impossible to invest in such a huge project one time due to our still tight budget. Second, construction of the southern section gets high approval from relevant competent bodies with stable construction volumes.”

Under MoT’s detailed planning, the section will go across 14 cities and districts in the capital and northern provinces of Hanoi, Hung Yen and Bac Ninh.

“Beltway 4’s core targets are to bridge urban satellite and peripheral industrial zones with Hanoi’s core region and ease traffic congestion in relevant areas,” said chairman of Transport Engineering Design Inc. (TEDI) Pham Huu Son.

Accordingly, the highway section will use up to 1,230 hectares with 740ha in Hanoi, 230ha in Hung Yen and 260ha in Bac Ninh.

The project will need around VND66.5 trillion ($3.21 billion) in a total investment capital, of which construction cost will be around VND36.1 trillion ($1.74 billion) and VND10 trillion ($483 million) for site clearance and compensation.

The big project is divided into seven subprojects to facilitate implementation.

The MoT also suggested handing over subprojects to local governments in localities where the highway section runs through to diversify investment sources. Accordingly these localities are encouraged to handle these subprojects under build-transfer (BT) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) and make use of available land funds.

Some road sections would be built sourcing state budget or official development assistance (ODA) capital, according to MoT.

Vietnam Road and Bridge Association’s deputy chairman Nguyen Ngoc Long assumed that beltway 4’s subprojects, especially sections crossing Hanoi, are particularly attractive to investors given the fact that Hanoi’s traffic volume is forecast to reach 38,279 vehicles per day by 2020.

“With investment of several hundred million US dollars for each subproject and capital recouping process of 20-40 years investors cannot act independently. In this context, promoting public-private partnership  model and making use of available land funds will be viable remedies,” Long said.