A 51.1-kilometer expressway in southern Vietnam that is part of the country’s ambitious plan to build a north-to-south expressway network is lagging in terms of construction progress due to slow capital disbursement.

As of September 2018, only 12 percent of the total works have been completed after more than three and a half years of construction of the Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway.

The expressway, which runs from the Trung Luong intersection in My Tho Province to My Thuan Commune in Vinh Long Province, broke grounds in February 2015 with a total investment of VND9.7 trillion (US$417 million).

It is part of the final leg of Vietnam’s North-South Expressway project that runs more than 1,800 kilometers from Hanoi to the southern city of Can Tho.

Surprisingly, the construction site for the Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway remains a sandy mess as of today, with only a few support columns for its elevated sections constructed so far.

According to an official, the project developer, Truong Luong – My Thuan BOT Company, is reluctant to speed up construction for fear of not having money to pay sub-contractors, given the fact that it has not received capital disbursement from city authorities.

A company leader said it had been pulling out all the stops to cover the costs of site clearance for around 3,000 local households, which amounted to nearly VND1.7 trillion ($73.15 million).

Until now, 96 percent of households located within the project range have agreed to move, while there are still 22 locations with ongoing disputes between house owners and the developer on the compensation amount.

The developer has until November 2018 to finish reinforcing 37 kilometers of ground deemed too soft for expressway construction, but with the current progress doubts have been raised on whether they could keep up with the schedule.

A contractor told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper one of the difficulties in getting access to bank loans is the fact that the interest rate approved for the project by the Ministry of Finance, which is at only 6.77 percent, is much lower than the actual rate listed by commercial banks, 10.83 percent.

“Therefore, when reviewing our loan applications, banks often tell us that the approved interest rate is inadequate and considers the investment unlikely to be profitable,” said Le Quoc Binh, general director of one of six contractors for the Trung Luong – My Thuan Expressway.

With the current financial plan, investors are in for losses that could amount to more than VND3.3 trillion ($142 million), according to leaders of Truong Luong – My Thuan BOT Company.

If no improvement is made on such setbacks, it will be unrealistic to expect the expressway to be finished by September 2020 as scheduled.

The project itself has been plagued by multiple issue since its first conception in 2009.

After its initial breaking ground ceremony in November 2009, construction of the expressway had to be immediately postponed to review the design for an intersection, before coming to an indefinite halt in 2012 due to lack of capital.

In February 2015, the second groundbreaking ceremony was held, this time with six new contractors and a new deadline set for December 2018.

However, sluggish construction has prompted authorities to allow the deadline to be pushed back twice since then to a new deadline of September 2020.

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