The Southern Key Economic Zone will prioritize funds for building four expressways and two belt roads and upgrading the national highways connected to the seaports in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and other areas.
The Southern Key Economic Zone will prioritize funds for building four expressways and two belt roads and upgrading the national highways connected to the seaports in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and other areas.
According to the master plan for socio-economic development in the southeast region until 2020 approved by the Prime Minister last Friday, the transport authority will prioritize developing the regional transport system, with a focus on inter-provincial expressways.
In particular, the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway stretching 55 kilometers from HCMC to Dau Giay in Dong Nai Province is under construction. A section of the expressway is scheduled for completion in late 2012 and opening to traffic in 2013.
However, site clearance has yet to be finished in the 4.2-km approach in HCMC, affecting the project progress. Le Manh Hung, director of the authority for the southern expressway projects, said his agency is studying a plan to open a temporary road to link the city to the expressway.
Meanwhile, the Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway, considered as the last piece to connect Long An, HCMC, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau together, will get off the ground soon. The 57.8-km expressway project worth over VND31.3 trillion, or roughly US$1.5 billion, is financed by Japan’s ODA and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the Planning and Investment Department of the Ministry of Transport, the loan agreement between Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) and ADB was signed in May 2011. At present, VEC is mobilizing other capital sources to kick off the project within this year and finalize it in 2017.
The third expressway in the southeast region is the one connecting Bien Hoa and Vung Tau. The project will be developed under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) format with a total budget of some VND22 trillion, in which the first phase costs more than VND13.8 trillion.
The project will be carried out by the investors Vietnam Urban and Industrial Zone Investment Development Corporation (IDICO), Song Da Corporation and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
According to the design, the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway will run through Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, with a total length of 68 kilometers.
In addition to expressway development, the transport ministry is joining hands with the localities to improve certain national highways.
Among them, the project to upgrade the National Highway 51, from HCMC to Vung Tau, is in its final stage and set for inauguration late this year. Once completed, the national highway will link to the expressways HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau and Dau Giay-Phan Thiet.
According to the transport ministry office, 24 projects will get started and 18 others will be completed from now to the year’s end.
(Source: SGT)
