At the review meeting of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam on January 2, the minister said that the Vietnamese transport sector was estimated to need around VND23 trillion (USD1.05 billion) on road maintenance in 2017, meanwhile, the Road Maintenance Fund had roughly VND10 trillion (USD454.5 million).
Transport Minister Nguyen Van The speaks at the meeting
Up to around 2,300 kilometres of roads out of the total 23,000 kilometres have to be upgraded per year. However, due to the limited budget, the road system has become more seriously deteriorated.
The government needs to make a careful consideration between the construction of new roads and the upgrade of deteriorated roads. In many cases, spending on building a new road could be more wasteful but less useful than pouring the much smaller capital into upgrading roads.
“To tell you the truth, I am almost unsatisfied with most of the roads which I have travelled along across the country,” he noted.
The instructed the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam to re-study the road maintenance process, focusing on the application of new technologies. It is important to repair and upgrade roads timely to avoid the more serious deterioration.
The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam has also been urged to complete an overall road maintenance roadmap report for the next 5-10 years with the required investment outlined.