HCMC – Project management board No. 2 has proposed investing over VND43.5 trillion into building the Quy Nhon-Pleiku Expressway, a 125-kilometer route connecting the provinces of Binh Dinh and Gia Lai.
The four-lane expressway, designed for speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, will span around 40 kilometers in Binh Dinh and 85 kilometers in Gia Lai, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
The investment estimate is up by VND4.59 trillion compared to the previous proposal, due to increased project length, higher land acquisition costs, and revised management and consultancy expenses, according to the project management board.
Funding is expected to come from surplus state revenue, budget savings from 2024, local government budgets, and allocations from the 2026-2030 medium-term public investment plan.
The project would be divided into three components: a 22-kilometer section in Binh Dinh costing nearly VND6.9 trillion; a 68-kilometer section traversing both Binh Dinh and Gia Lai with an investment of over VND27.4 trillion; and a 35-kilometer stretch in Gia Lai requiring nearly VND9.2 trillion.
The management board has called for special mechanisms to accelerate implementation, including concurrent approval of feasibility studies, technical designs, and bidding documents, as well as simplified procedures for land acquisition, contractor selection, and resource exploitation.
Pending government approval, construction could begin in 2025, with the expressway slated to open for traffic by 2029.
Binh Dinh and Gia Lai are currently connected by National Highway 19, a 243-kilometer route that takes about 3.5 to 4 hours to traverse. The planned Quy Nhon-Pleiku expressway is expected to reduce travel time to around two hours once operational.
