|
New port delayed by roadwork
A nearly-completed new port in Ho Chi Minh City will not be able to operate until next year because three bridges on the access roads are not finished.
The US$366 million Saigon Premier Container Terminal (SPCT) was scheduled to begin operating on October 1.
However, the completed port is expected to lie idle for eight months or more because the roads that will connect the port to the city will not be able to carry traffic until May next year at the earliest.
The new Saigon Premier Container Terminal is part of a HCMC government plan to relocate the city’s eight ports from the inner city to outlying areas by 2020 to improve the highway system and reduce traffic congestion in one of the world’s most heavily populated cities.
The Saigon Premier Container Terminal project and the access road project were both approved in 2005 and construction of the port has been underway for three years.
Nguyen Xuan Bang, director of the HCMC Transport Department’s Metropolitan Traffic Unit No.4, said construction of the main access road, the 7 kilometer four-lane Nguyen Huu Tho Street, was almost complete.
However, Bang said it was not yet clear when the three bridges along Nguyen Huu Tho Street would be finished.
Bang said the road project required an extra VND134 billion ($7.5 million) from the HCMC People’s Committee to construct the three bridges.
Two other one-way roads to the port, Nguyen Van Tao and the North-South Axis, are still unfinished, with construction of the North-South Axis still to get underway. Both roads were originally scheduled to be completed by June.
The cost of the delay in opening the 38-hectare Saigon Premier Container Terminal has not been revealed.
The port, on the Soai Rap River 15 kilometers from the city center, is being built, equipped and operated by DP World, the world’s largest marine terminal operator, which owns 49 terminals and 12 developments in 31 countries.
Once operational, Saigon Premier Container Terminal will be able to handle 1.5 million twenty ton-equivalent units (TEUs) per year.
Meanwhile, the Cat Lai Port in HCMC’s District 2 is also experiencing difficulties. Severe traffic jams on the port’s access road has caused delays at the port over the past three weeks.
Ngoc An
vietnews
|
