Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway and parts of HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway projects under the North-South Expressway network will be put into use by the middle of the year, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) said.

Over 98% of total road area of HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway project has been cleared, Le Manh Hung, director of the project, said in a meeting organized at a construction site in HCMC’s District 9 on Tuesday.

The amount of disbursed capital for the project in 2011 reached more than VND2 trillion, doubling the original figure set a year earlier. The project management board strives to disburse VND3.1 trillion this year, paving the way to complete the first tender package as scheduled.

In particular, tender packages 1A and 1B are expected to finish by July and December respectively.

HCMC will hand over the remaining site to the project investors by the second quarter of this year at the latest in an effort to guarantee implementation pace, Le Hoang Quan, HCMC Chairman, explained about site clearance work.

Apart from the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay project, the ministry urges relevant agencies to develop two more expressway projects namely Dau Giay-Phan Thiet and Bien Hoa Vung Tau and commence construction of Long Thanh Airport by 2015, Deputy Minister of Transport Ngo Duc Thinh told the meeting.

The 55 kilometer expressway runs through HCMC and Dong Nai Province. In the first phase, it has total investment capital of VND9.89 trillion funded by the Official Development Assistance.

VEC is now constructing part of the project stretching from HCMC’s District 2 to Dong Nai Province’s Long Thanh District.

Meanwhile, VEC on Monday also resumed construction work on the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway project.

The transport ministry will allocate more capital to speed up the implementation pace. The project is set to be complete by June 30 at the latest, said Le Manh Hung, Deputy Minister of Transport.

The 50.3-km expressway intersects National Highway 1A at the starting point and National Highway 10 at the end.

At present, 23km of this expressway project is open to traffic to reduce the dense traffic circulation on National Highway 1A.

The first phase of this project costs nearly VND8.98 trillion, including VND6.94 trillion for construction expenses, VND489 billion for site clearance and VND665 billion for interest rate loan payments.  

It is designed to allow vehicles to travel at 100-120 km per hour. In the first phase, the expressway consists of four lanes and it will be expanded to six lanes in the next phase.

(Source: Vietnamnet)