The National Highway No. 19 is 9m wide, in which 7m is for concrete surface. The road has been put into operation for a long time without repair. This leads to severe damages of the road. In addition, it is so narrow and bridges along the road are so dilapidated that they can’t meet increasing traffic. Many parts of the road pass through inner-city of Quy Nhon and highly residential areas in 2 provinces of Binh Dinh and Gia Lai, causing traffic accidents.
At the present, most of agricultural products from the Central Highland provinces, southern region of Laos and north-eastern region of Cambodia are transported along the road to Quy Nhon port for exportation. If the road is repaired, the socio-economic development, security and defense of Binh Dinh in particular and the Central Key Economic Zone, the Central Highland region in general will be guaranteed. So, the strategic route need repair soon.
Necessity of the repair and expansion
A project on repair of the National Highway No. 19 from Quy Nhon port to Le Thanh border gate was approved by Prime Minister in a planning of transport development in the Central Key Economic Zone by 2020, with vision to 2030, at Decision No. 07/2011/QĐ-TTg dated January 25, 2011.
Accordingly, Quy Nhon – Central Highland corridor is among the five key transport systems in the region; is an important route connecting Quy Nhon port with the Central Highland region and neigbour countries of Laos, Cambodia and north-eastern area of Thailand. The corridor will be built along the existing National Highway No. 19. Its 77km-long section from Quy Nhon port to An Khe Pass will be upgraded to tertiary level. The part from Quy Nhon port to intersection with the National Highway No. 1A (Ganh Bridge intersection) will be built as a new primary-and-secondary-level road with 4-6 lanes.
The later is 17.4 km long. It has already got investment endorsement of authorized central agencies. Binh Dinh People’s Committee and Ministry of Transportation deliberate about size, funds and management of the project on building the new road as current regulations. A consultant company has already finished the project planning with total estimated cost of nearly 6,000 billion VND, in which 3,897 billion VND in the first phase (2012-2015) and 2,012 billion VND in the second phase (2015-2020). The planning is under appraisal of the Ministry of Transportation.
Leaders of 3 provinces of Binh Dinh, Gia Lai and Kon Tum has just joined a meeting in Quy Nhon city with officials from ministries of Planning – Investment, Transportation, Finance on the implementation of the project.
At the meeting, Chairman of Binh Dinh People’s Committee Le Huu Loc suggested that the central government should let Binh Dinh play the role of the project owner in building the new road from Quy Nhon port to Ganh Bridge intersection. The project is under form of BT (build – transfer). The provincial government will extract about 800 billion VND from its fund raised through revenues of the land plots along the road to cover costs of land clearance and resettlement.
The 221km-long section of the National Highway No. 19 from Ba Gi Bridge (at Binh Dinh province) to Le Thanh border gate (at Gia Lai province) was proposed to be upgraded as a tertiary road with would-be total width of 12m, concrete surface of 7m, 2 lanes, pavements of 2m each side. The part at An Khe Pass should be given priority. The section would be built under form of BOT (build-operate-transfer) from 2013-2020.
At the meeting, the leaders of the 3 ministries all agreed with the provincial leaders to ask for soon approval of the Prime Minister to the project. Ministry of Transport would ask the Prime Minister to allocate ODA loans and other preferred financial aids for the project through Vietnam Development Bank (VDB). Leaders of other authorized agencies would cooperate closely with 3 provinces of Binh Dinh, Gia Lai and Kon Tum in finding feasible solutions, inviting investors to repair the National Highway No. 19 soon.
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