Ministry of Transport proposes to buy back 7 BOT toll stations

May 18, 2022 07:45

On May 17, the Ministry of Transport proposed using budget capital to buy back 7 BOT projects that have been pending for many years.

At a meeting with government leaders on May 17, Mr. Le Kim Thanh, Director of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Department, said that so far, the Ministry of Transport has resolved problems at 14 toll stations, while the remaining 7 BOT projects have no solutions, beyond the authority of the Ministry.

According to Mr. Thanh, in these BOT projects, investors have fulfilled their contractual obligations but have not yet collected fees or have collected fees but their revenue has decreased due to objective, unforeseeable reasons or due to policy changes from state agencies.

Regarding the authority to decide to terminate project contracts ahead of schedule, Mr. Thanh said that previous BOT projects had their investment policies decided by the Government, so the authority to allow the termination of project contracts ahead of schedule belongs to the Prime Minister.

Trạm thu phí T2 gần cầu Vàm Cống từng bị tài xế phản ứng về vị trí đặt trạm. Ảnh: Cửu Long — *Toll station T2 near Vam Cong bridge has received protests from drivers about its location. Photo: Cuu Long*

7 toll stations belonging to BOT projects that need to be handled include: La Son - Tuy Loan toll station (project to build a road tunnel through Deo Ca); Bim Son toll station (capital recovery for the western beltway of Thanh Hoa city, section Km0 - Km6); Km1747 toll station (BOT project to invest in upgrading and expanding Ho Chi Minh road, section Km1738+148 - Km1763+610); T2 toll station (BOT project to renovate and upgrade National Highway 91, section Km14 - Km5+889).

National Highway 3 toll station (BOT project to build Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi route and renovate and upgrade National Highway 3 section Km75 - Km100); Thai Ha bridge toll station under BOT project to invest in building Thai Ha bridge over the Red River on the road connecting Thai Binh and Ha Nam provinces with Cau Gie - Ninh Binh expressway; project to renovate and upgrade Saigon river channel from Binh Loi railway bridge to Ben Suc port under BOT contract.

At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh requested the Ministry of Transport and relevant agencies to urgently review and develop solutions to remove the problem. Enterprises that have invested hundreds of billions of VND in BOT projects cannot go bankrupt because they cannot collect fees.

Minister Nguyen Van The assigned the Director of the Public-Private Partnership Department to report in detail on BOT stations in May to submit to the Government for agreement on solutions to remove and handle the problem.

According to VnExpress