HCM CITY — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has accepted Đồng Nai Province’s proposal to be the State authority to implement the US$310 million Cát Lái Bridge project, which will link HCM City’s District 2 with Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu provinces.

The bridge is supposed to replace the Cát Lái ferry, which has proved incapable of handling traffic volume at nearly double its capacity, resulting in frequent traffic jams on both sides of the ferry.

The HCM City-Long Thành-Dầu Giây highway – which connects HCM City with Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu – is not open to motorbikes, meaning commuting between these areas depends heavily on the ferry.

The $16 billion Long Thành international airport project, which is to begin in Đồng Nai next year and be completed in 2025, will further strain the situation.

The Cát Lái Bridge is also expected to give a significant boost to transport between Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu and other localities in the south-western region, while easing jams in HCM City's eastern entry and exit point.

The Government said Đồng Nai Province People’s Committee must co-ordinate with HCM City People’s Committee to reach an agreement on the plan to carry out the project’s components and financing models.

Construction on the bridge is slated to begin in 2020.

In previous proposals, Đồng Nai said given the large investment scale, applying the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model to the whole project would not be feasible, and the province has asked for dividing the project into three components.

Accordingly, the 623m road in HCM City leading up to the bridge will be handled by HCM City while the 263m road leading to the bridge will be done by Đồng Nai, both under the Build-Transfer (BT) model, in which the province’s land lots will be exchanged for investors’ building the infrastructure.

The main bridge will be implemented by Đồng Nai Province under BOT model. If the BOT model proves unworkable in future assessments of the project, the province said it would adopt both BOT and BT models. — VNS