A section of National Highway 51 through Dong Nai.

The Ministry of Transport has just sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Finance requesting that the ministry soon establish public ownership of the assets of the National Highway 51 expansion project, section Km0+900-Km73+600, in Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces under the form of a BOT contract.

The Ministry of Transport said that the management and maintenance of the main route of National Highway 51 is very urgent; at the same time, road traffic infrastructure assets are special assets, serving public purposes, people's livelihood, economic development and ensuring national security and defense... in any circumstances and conditions, the State management agency must organize the management and exploitation of assets to ensure continuous, smooth and safe traffic.

“Therefore, the Ministry of Transport continues to request the Ministry of Finance to unify the establishment of public ownership of the assets that have been handed over by the project enterprise to the Vietnam Road Administration to support competent State agencies to promptly organize and implement the management, maintenance and exploitation of assets according to regulations,” the leader of the Ministry of Transport proposed.

This is the third time in the past 6 months that the Ministry of Finance has been asked to establish public ownership of the assets of the BOT project to expand National Highway 51 in Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces.

It is known that the investor has requested to temporarily suspend project maintenance work on these assets and hand over the project assets to the Vietnam Road Administration by the end of January 2023.

By April 19, 2023, the Project investor, BVEC, had handed over 72.7 km including the road length and bridge length over 25 m belonging to the section from Km0+900-Km73+600 National Highway 51 to the Vietnam Road Administration.

However, the investor has not yet handed over the operator's house, toll collection equipment system, as well as other assets serving the Project.

To ensure continuous management, maintenance and exploitation of transport infrastructure assets, ensure traffic safety, and protect and extend the exploitation period of transport infrastructure assets, the Vietnam Road Administration has received the assets handed over by BVEC to carry out management, maintenance and preservation of assets.

According to the contract between the Vietnam Road Administration and BVEC signed in 2009, the total toll collection period for the BOT project to expand National Highway 51 is 20.66 years, of which the toll collection period to recover capital is about 16.66 years (from August 3, 2012 to March 27, 2029); the toll collection period to generate profit is 4 years (from March 28, 2029 to March 28, 2033).

By the end of February 2017, the project's capital recovery fee collection period was adjusted to 20 years, 6 months and 11 days, that is, from July 1, 2009 to January 12, 2030, and 4 years of profit-generating fee collection.

At the end of 2018, due to some changes related to input factors and recommendations from the State Audit, the Vietnam Road Administration recalculated the time to collect tolls to generate profit and reduced the time to generate profit from 4 years to 9 months.

To avoid BVEC from collecting tolls beyond the deadline, on January 9, 2023, the Vietnam Road Administration issued Document No. 137/CDBVN to temporarily suspend toll collection at toll stations under the BOT Project to invest in expanding National Highway 51 from 7:00 a.m. on January 13, 2023 while negotiations between the two sides have not yet ended.

There are currently two issues that have not reached consensus between the investor and the Vietnam Road Administration regarding the contract fee for the BOT project to expand National Highway 51: the equity preservation fee of 8.7%/year and the time for collecting tolls to generate profit.

At the end of October 2024, the Ministry of Transport issued a document directing the Vietnam Road Administration and relevant agencies to urgently resolve the existing problems of the BOT project to invest in expanding National Highway 51 in accordance with its authority and legal regulations.