Licence of long-delayed Trung Luong-My Thuan to be revoked

The construction of VND15 trillion ($670.3 million) Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway-phase 1 project in the southern region remains standing at starting point after 14 months of re-launching.

As of now, only three of 24 packaging tenders have been kicked off with poor performances although the local authorities have handed over 80 per cent of land for investors.

According to Dang Trung Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Traffic Works and Construction Management under the Ministry of Transport, contractors have yet to concentrate its resource to implement the project, leading to the long delay.

Besides, the investor, namely Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT Company consisting of Tuan Loc Investment Construction JSC, Yen Khanh Production and Trade Services Company Limited, BMT Construction Investment JSC, Thang Loi Group Limited, and Hoang An JSC have yet to submit the necessary application dossiers to the local authorities for approval of the official investment contract.

Furthermore, in spite of being urged, four of six stake-holders have yet to submit their audited 2015 financial reports aiming to prove their finances when they join the consortium.

Nguyen Nhat, Deputy Minister of Transport has recently continued to urge six stake-holders to submit their audited 2015 financial reports, especially, the capital invested in the expressway in reports must match with the figures in biding documents and they are not allowed to transfer the investment right without the authorities’ approval.

Especially, Nhat also asked BMT Construction Investment JSC and Tuan Loc Investment Construction JSC to submit their audited 2015 financial reports before April 30 otherwise the MoT and related agencies will refuse to sign the official investment contract, simultaneously notice the Ministry of Planning and Investment to revoke the investment certificate.

The Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway project involves building a 51 kilometre expressway and 4.5km approach road at the total investment capital of VND15 trillion ($670.3 million) under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form.

The project construction initially kicked off by Expressway Investment Development Joint Stock Company under Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in November 2009 and expected to complete in late 2018. However the construction became suspended due to the investor facing capital constraints. It was resumed in February 2015.