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Shipping lines demand road repairs to connect port with highway
Shippers at a meeting with the Transport Ministry Wednesday demanded that the government repair a severely damaged road connecting a major port to nearby national highway as the port was isolated without it.
The Tan Cang – Cai Mep Port in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province has fallen into disuse as Road 965, built by the ministry in 2008 for more than VND1 trillion (US$56.1 million), is heavily damaged and unable to support heavy cargo traveling to and from the port and National Highway No.51.
The only way to transport the goods now is small ferries that carry the goods to ports in Ho Chi Minh City, more than 100 kilometers away, before using vehicles to drive them to receivers, many of which are in Dong Nai Province, just several dozen kilometers from Tan Cang – Cai Mep.
Tran Khanh Sinh, director of Tan Cang – Cai Mep Port Joint Stock Co., said his company had to share the transport costs to HCMC, which has totaled dozens of billions of dong since the port was put in use in June.
At the meeting Wednesday, Sinh said damage to the road had caused great losses to many businesses, particularly his, as the port was no longer connected to the rest of the country.
“We’ve received many complaints from customers and they now refuse to load or unload their cargo at the port.”
Sinh said transporters complained that their vehicles springs and shocks often broke while traveling on Road 965.
The businesses that own the cargo also complained that their goods had been broken on the treacherous road and they instead had to wait several extra days for the goods to be brought to HCMC and back, adding serious delays to their business activities.
Sinh added that workers at the port usually arrive late as it takes them half an hour to take Road 965 to work for a distance that used to take five minutes.
Nguyen Tat Nham, an official from the ministry’s Project Management Unit 85 (PMU85) that invested in the road, said at the meeting his unit was responsible for the road condition and promised that it would ask the project’s contractor to fix the road later this month.
Transport firms have said they would share the repair costs.
The port receives goods traded between Vietnam or Cambodia and the US.
thanhnien, tt
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