The Ministry of Transport (MOT) said that if the exploitation of the roadbed soil mines is not extended in time, the Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet expressway section will hardly be completed by April 30.

The Ministry of Transport has just sent an urgent dispatch to the Government regarding the extension of the exploitation period of earth fill mines for the Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet expressway project, part of the North – South expressway project phase 1.

Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet Expressway at risk of not reaching the finish line by April 30 due to expired mining license.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the soil mines serving the construction of the North-South Expressway, including the Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet section, are subject to a special mechanism, and contractors are allowed to exploit them until they have enough volume to supply the project. After that, Binh Thuan province granted permission to exploit 6 soil mines serving the project with an exploitation period until December 10, 2022 - according to the initial progress of the expressway construction contracts.

However, during the recent construction period, due to some objective reasons, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and heavy rain, the construction packages had to be extended until April 30, 2023. Therefore, the exploitation period of the mines also had to be extended.

The contractors directly exploiting the mine have not fully understood the process and procedures; have not anticipated objective factors, so the application for extension of the mining license is slow (must be extended 45 days before the license expires). As a result, the People's Committee of Binh Thuan province has not yet carried out the extension.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment commented on the above content that the extension of material mines is under the authority of the Government.

Currently, contractors constructing the Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet Expressway need about 920,000m3 of additional soil for roadbed filling. Due to the expiration of the soil mines, from December 10, 2022 until now, contractors have no soil materials for construction; machinery, equipment, and labor mobilized at the construction site have to stop and wait, causing waste.

The Ministry of Transport said that with the remaining construction volume, from the beginning of March, there will be fill soil and contractors will continue to construct, the new Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet expressway section can be completed on April 30, 2023.

Therefore, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Prime Minister consider approving the inclusion in the Resolution of the regular Government meeting in February 2023 of a number of measures to remove difficulties in extending the mining license for the project, the license term until the project is completed; allowing contractors to exploit land mines for the project while waiting for the license extension.

The Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet expressway project is over 100km long, with a total investment of over 10,853 billion VND, from public investment capital. The project started construction in September 2020, with the goal of completion before April 30.

According to Le Huu Viet

Vanguard

https://cafef.vn/cao-toc-vinh-hao-phan-thiet-nguy-co-lut-tien-do-20230304075450147.chn