Prime Minister: 'By 2025, it is feasible to have 3,000 km of expressway nationwide'

Many major expressway projects are being implemented simultaneously, along with 1,729 km already put into operation, by 2025 the whole country can reach more than 3,000 km, according to the Prime Minister .

The comments were made by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the groundbreaking ceremony of three projects: Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway and Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway, on the morning of June 18. The three routes have a total length of 247 km, costing more than VND115,000 billion, helping to connect key economic regions in the South and the Central Highlands.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony on the morning of June 18. Photo: Gia Minh

According to the Prime Minister, the simultaneous commencement of construction works is part of a series of key projects of the transport sector in June. The works are part of the strategic transport infrastructure construction orientation, and when completed, will open up space for economic and social development.

The Government leader said that in the period 2000-2021, the whole country invested in and put into operation 1,163 km of expressways. This network is currently targeted to increase to 5,000 km by 2030, of which 3,000 km need to be built by 2025. According to this plan, in the 9 years from 2021 to 2030, the number of km of expressways that need to be invested in and built will be nearly 4 times more than the past 20 years.

To achieve the above target, from 2021 to now, the whole country has invested in an additional 566 km of highways, bringing the total number of highways to 1,729. Together with the projects under construction with a total length of 1,756 km, if focused on implementation, by 2025 the target of having more than 3,000 km nationwide can be achieved.

Currently, many other projects are being accelerated by the Ministry of Transport and localities to submit procedures for investment approval to competent authorities. This is a premise for completing the goal of building 5,000 km of expressway by 2030.

With the three projects starting today, the Prime Minister said that applying mechanisms is an important condition for implementation. In particular, the projects are decentralized, delegated authority, and assigned to localities as the implementing agencies, which has helped speed up the progress, because the Ministry of Transport alone would have had a lot of difficulties. These projects are applying other mechanisms, combining capital sources between the Central and local levels; and appointing contractors, which are favorable conditions to speed up the progress.

"These three mechanisms demonstrate more boldness. We are working and expanding at the same time, not hastily but boldly," said the Prime Minister.

Perspective of Tan Van intersection of Ring Road 3 project when completed. Photo: Traffic Department

Government leaders said that compensation and site clearance for these projects is very difficult, because it passes through large urban areas such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau... However, localities have applied many solutions to get people to support and share, helping to speed up the progress. In particular, in Ho Chi Minh City, in just a short time, the rate of site handover for the Belt has reached 87%, considered a "miracle" due to the complexity of compensation for projects passing through the inner city, large scale, affecting many households.

However, the Prime Minister said that the commencement of new projects is only the first step, the upcoming challenges are huge because the workload is large while the implementation time is not long. Localities need to focus on site clearance, in which the resettlement of people needs to ensure that the new housing is equal to or better than the old one. With a huge workload, relevant ministries and localities need to develop specific plans, ensuring progress, quality, safety, and absolutely not allowing corruption, negativity, or unreasonable capital increase.

Representing the four localities the project passes through, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that Belt Road 3 is "a connecting road, a development road". According to him, the work done in the past to start the project is very large. In the near future, the city will focus on completing the clearance of the remaining area and speeding up construction so that the road can be completed as planned.

"HCMC will also coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to closely monitor the implementation process and promote the project to open to technical traffic by the end of 2025 and complete it in 2026," Mr. Mai said, asking the provinces in the project area to closely coordinate for synchronous implementation.

Perspective of Phuoc An bridge project. Photo: Department of Transport of Ba Ria - Vung Tau

On the morning of June 18, Phuoc An bridge across Thi Vai river connecting Ba Ria - Vung Tau province with Dong Nai, with a total cost of nearly 4,900 billion VND, also started construction.

Phuoc An Bridge project has a total length of more than 4.3 km, of which the bridge over Thi Vai River is 3.5 km long, with 6 lanes and access roads, connecting roads to Phuoc An port. The bridge construction cost from the budget of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province is 2,879 billion VND and the Central Government supports about 2,000 billion VND. The project is expected to be completed after 5 years of construction.

When completed, the project will connect Cai Mep – Thi Vai inter-port road with Nhon Trach district (Dong Nai), connecting to the Ben Luc – Long Thanh inter-regional expressway; shortening the freight transport route to the West by nearly 30 km and vice versa. The project will also help reduce the load on National Highway 51, thereby connecting the entire group of seaports No. 4, the largest in the country, with the Southeast region.

Gia Minh - Truong Ha

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