The proposal was put forward by the My Thuan Project Management Board, which is authorized by the Ministry of Transport to extend part of the HCMV – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway, which runs 55 kilometers (34 miles) to connect Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbors Dong Nai.
The expansion is expected to cost 13 trillion dong (over $ 572 million) and 79% of the amount is expected to come from official development assistance (ODA) provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a recently wrote the board of directors to the ministry.
As proposed, the ODA loan would cover the costs of construction, equipment, engineering design advice, supervision and emergency.
The remainder of the project investment, approximately $ 120 million, would come from government matching capital, to cover value-added tax related to construction and emergency costs, site clearance and site management. project, among others.
As planned, the widened section of the highway will stretch for 24 kilometers from the An Phu intersection in Thu Duc town in HCMC to the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau highway in Long Thanh district in Dong Nai, covering 11.7 kilometers to HCMC and about 12 kilometers to Dong Nai.
The project will expand the section from four to eight lanes for vehicles to travel at 100-120 km / h.
For the two bridges of the section, Song Tac and Long Thanh, the commission proposes to extend them to 10 and nine lanes respectively.
The remainder of the highway at Dong Nai, which stretches 31 kilometers from Long Thanh District to Dau Giay Town of Thong Nhat District, will remain unchanged with four lanes.
As the My Thuan project management committee explained, JICA is now very interested in financing the highway extension.
Previously, the agency had worked with the board and directly inspected the route.
For now, the board is proposing to the Ministry of Transport to review its proposal and send a document to the ministries of Planning-Investment and Finance on the plan and report to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at a later date. .
Opened to traffic in 2015, the HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway, worth VND 20.6 trillion, is a blood line between HCMC and the rest of the south-eastern region, as well as the central highlands.
Given its crucial role, the road has repeatedly suffered heavy traffic jams in recent years.
The expansion project is only expected to improve the capacity of the highway, but meet future traffic demand as Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai, designed to be Vietnam’s largest, comes into operation in 2025.
