HCMC – The Ministry of Transport’s subsidiaries will start work on eight important traffic projects in the northern mountainous areas and the Mekong Delta between the end of December and early next month, with their investment financed by the State budget or Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans.
Among them, a transport project in the northern mountainous region will get going next week, including two routes.
The first route will connect Lai Chau Province with the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Expressway stretching 147 kilometers and including 17 bridges with a total length of 730 meters. This route will allow vehicles to travel at a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
The second route, whose length exceeds 51 kilometers, will link Nghia Lo Town in Yen Bai Province with the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Expressway.
Overall, this project will connect the three northern provinces of Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Yen Bai with the expressway, helping improve the transportation system in the region, promote regional socioeconomic growth, and ensure uninterrupted traffic flow in case of flooding in the area.
The project requires over VND5.3 trillion in investment backed by loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ODA loans of the Australian Government, and the reciprocal capital of the Vietnamese Government. The ministry’s Project Management Board No. 2 will be the investor.
The second project is to upgrade the Cho Gao Canal in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang. Work on the project began on December 19, with a total investment of over VND1.3 trillion.
Regarding the third project, a route linking the National Highway 91 and a bypass in Long Xuyen City of An Giang Province will be built late this month, with a total length of 15.3 kilometers.
The project, which runs through Can Tho and An Giang, costs more than VND2.1 trillion in investment backed by ODA loans offered by the ADB. According to the ministry, the project is expected to ease traffic congestion, reduce traffic accidents, and ensure a smooth road traffic flow.
Another project will open a waterway route to enable large vessels to enter the Mekong Delta via the Hau River, with a total investment of over VND2.2 trillion coming from the State budget, with the Maritime Project Management Board serving as the investor.
For the next project, the Project Management Board No. 7 will develop a bypass of the National Highway 1A section that runs across Ca Mau City in the province of the same name.
The 14-kilometer-long bypass, costing VND1.725 trillion in investment, will allow vehicles to travel at 80 kilometers per hour. It will help ease the high traffic volume facing National Highway 1A, reduce traffic congestion and accidents.
In the sixth project, a National Highway 1A section which stretches from Nga Bay City in Hau Giang Province to Chau Thanh District in Soc Trang Province will get upgraded. The VND1.6-trillion project will be financed by the State budget.
For the seventh project, the ministry will reinforce weak bridges and build new ones along national highways, with a total investment at VND1.49 trillion.
As for the eighth project, bridges and roads across over 50 provinces and cities nationwide will be upgraded to improve the connectivity among localities, especially remote areas. This project will require VND9.2 trillion sourced from loans offered by the World Bank and the country’s reciprocal capital.
As someone who drives around 4,000 kilometres a month, news of new highways is welcomed. But I have a question.
WILL PROVISION BE MADE FOR MOTORCYCLES?
Motorcycles are the leading form of transportation, and way more efficient than some four-wheeled carrying one or two people with ego challenges
Governments have done a great job in providing combined automobile/motorcycle highways such as Q14, a road I travel twice monthly. Single type vehicle use is a waste of resources.
(Note: I use 2 and four-wheel transportation.)
Vietnam is developing expressway networks to facilitate fast traffic while a vast majority of motorcycles in use in the country are light-duty ones.