HCM City, Dong Nai to join hands to build Cat Lai bridge

HCM City and Dong Nai Province have reached a final agreement to build a new bridge to replace the Cat Lai ferry in the 2025-30 period.

People use Cat Lai ferry to travel between HCM City's Thu Duc city and Dong Nai Province's Nhon Trach District. — VNS Photo Nguyen Diep

Tran Quang Lam, director of the HCM City Department of Transportation, said Dong Nai Province’s People’s Committee has sent a document to the city’s People’s Committee agreeing to invest in the Cat Lai Bridge project.

The Cat Lai ferry carries an average of 50,000 passengers a day and 100,000 on peak days, and is often overloaded during the holidays.

The new bridge will be 4.5km long and have eight lanes, with total investment of VND4.9 trillion ($211.6 million) in the form of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Work is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

Once completed, it will facilitate transport from HCM City not only to Nhon Trach District but also to the rest of Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

In the near future, when the under-construction Long Thành International Airport becomes operational (in Dong Nai Province), Cat Lai Bridge will connect HCM City with the airport, helping ease congestion on the existing HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway.

After 2030, the two localities plan to build two more bridges across the Đồng Nai River.

The Ministry of Transport is currently investing in building four-lane Nhơn Trạch Bridge connecting Nhon Trach District in Dong Nai.

The completion time of Nhon Trach Bridge in early 2026 should meet some of the traffic connection demand between Nhon Trach and the City.

In addition, the route of Nguyen Thi Dinh in and out of Cat Lai Port on the HCM City side is overloaded, with frequent traffic jams. Currently, the city is studying investment to build the Cat Lai – Phu Huu inter-port road, connecting from Nguyen Thi Dinh Street to the intersection of Ring Road No 3 of the City, which is expected to be completed and put into use in the 2026-30 period.

(Source: VNS)