Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà chairs the conference. — VNA/VNS Photo Văn Điệp

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà on Friday stressed that expanding the HCM City-Long Thành section was an urgent issue.

He said that it needed to ensure synchronisation with transport infrastructure and meet socio-economic development requirements.

The section belongs to the HCM City-Long Thành-Dầu Giây Expressway project.

Chairing a conference on an investment plan to expand the HCM City-Long Thành section, which was held at the Government Office on Friday, the Deputy PM said that deciding an investment plan was based on progress and economic efficiency, so it is necessary to choose an appropriate scheme to implement the next steps.

The Deputy PM gave comments on the plan to assign the Việt Nam Expressway Development Investment Corporation (VEC) as the investor.

He directed the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC), the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance to summarise VEC's operating model.

They are responsible for proposing solutions to improve financial capacity and meeting conditions for conducting key transportation investment projects.

The VEC needs to urgently develop a pre-feasibility report, capital calling plans, site clearance, and financial plans for the HCM City-Long Thành section in relationship with other expressway projects that the VEC is exploiting.

The HCM City-Long Thành-Dầu Giây Expressway Project phase one was put into operation from June 30, 2016 with a total length of 55km, of which the HCM City-Long Thành segment is about 26km, according to the CMSC.

Since being put into operation, vehicles in the section have continuously increased.

Deputy Chairman of the CMSC Nguyễn Ngọc Cảnh said that the VEC had researched and proposed expanding the section from the HCM City-Ring Road 2 intersection to the Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu Expressway intersection into eight lanes.

It also considered the ability to broaden to 10 lanes.

The expansion of the HCM City-Long Thành section is to meet transportation needs after a number of key traffic projects were opened for public use such as the Long Thành International Airport phase one with a capacity of 26 million passengers per year, the Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu Expressway and the widened Cái Mép-Thị Vải Seaport.

Discussing at the conference, leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the HCM City People's Committee and Đồng Nai Province said that it was necessary to consider an investment plan to immediately enlarge the HCM City-Long Thành section to 10 lanes, instead of eight lanes as proposed. — VNS