Viet Nam: Transport Connections in Northern Mountainous Provinces Project

Transport / Road transport (non-urban)

The PPTA will prepare a project that is suitable for ADB funding. Its scope will include (i) an assessment of selected provincial and district roads in the six project provinces, and feasibility studies for prioritized improvement works of selected road sections; and (ii) an assessment of key road sector issues in the provinces, including institutional and implementation arrangements for the proposed project. The PPTA will assess improving provincial road infrastructure in the six provinces of Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai, and Lao Cai in the northern mountainous region of Viet Nam. The project roads will be selected from a long list of priority provincial and district road projects, based on initial selection criteria of (i) improvement only to existing roads, (ii) maximizing the economic internal rate of return, (iii) minimizing resettlement and other negative social impacts, (iv) providing connectivity to poor and ethnic minority areas to maximize poverty-reduction impact, and (v) having no significant environmental impacts. Further consideration will be given to roads linking to other ADB financed road projects in the northern region.

The project preparation component activities will include: (i) assessing options for improvement works for the selected long list of road sections in each province; (ii) develop a methodology and selection criteria to prioritize selection of roads to improve; (iii) analyzing transport links to determine economic and technical feasibility and social and environmental impacts; and (iv) preparing a matrix to rank road sections to form logical projects for a range of funding levels. Feasibility studies will be prepared for each of the selected road sections. The selected project roads are expected to not require substantial land acquisition and resettlement, with most improvement works limited to improvement of the existing road formation and only minor widening where there is substandard width.

The PPTA will also address road sector policy issues at the province level, including (i) vehicle overloading, (ii) road safety for users and local communities, (iii) road maintenance practices and development of sustainable financing solution, (iv) governance, and (v) institutional capacity. The latter activity will include identifying necessary training and strengthening programs, reviewing ongoing implementation problems in donor-funded projects, and assessing procurement and contract management issues. Capacity building measures are expected to expand provincial road maintenance programs developed under other donor funded projects. The resources and capacity of provincial government road agencies will be assessed to determine the effectiveness of provinces implementing road sector reform measures when there are overriding national government laws and regulations.