Society
Contracts worth $286.3 million inked at Việt Nam Int’l Defence Expo 2024
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| The existing Bình Lợi Bridge will be replaced by a new one to facilitate a BOT waterway cargo transport project connecting HCM City with Bình Dương. — VNA/VNS Photo Mạnh Linh |
Viet Nam News
HCM CITY — The section of the Sài Gòn River from HCM City to Bình Dương Province will be dredged in what will be the country’s first build-operate-transfer waterway project.
It also includes construction of the Bình Lợi Bridge in HCM City’s Bình Thạnh District, slated to be finished later this year.
The Bình Lợi BOT Investment Ltd Co will collect toll from ships travelling on the section of the river, Bùi Xuân Cường, director of the HCM City Department of Transport, had told a press meeting this week.
Vũ Đức Cúc, a spokesman for the company, said vessels with a capacity of over 300 tonnes would have to pay the fee when travelling under the bridge.
The toll will be VNĐ70 per tonne/km, and be collected for 20 years and nine months.
Cúc said the toll is much lower than the highway toll of VNĐ240 per tonne/km.
Roads linking the two localities are however heavily congested, he said.
The channel is likely to become very popular as firms can sharply cut transportation costs.
Work on the VNĐ1.3 trillion (US$57.5 million) project had begun in April 2015. The passage runs from Bình Lợi in HCM City to Bến Sức Harbour in Bình Dương.—VNS
