Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told the ground-breaking ceremony that the expressway together with other road projects under construction such as Hanoi-Lao Cai and Hanoi-Haiphong would give a push to socio-economic development in northern provinces, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The road will help establish the third centripetal expressway from Hanoi to the northeastern and northwestern areas, beside Hanoi-Lao Cai and Hanoi-Haiphong.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Transport as the project owner and relevant agencies to ensure the progress of the project as well as quality and safety of the construction in order to achieve the goal.

Dung also required authorities of Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Hanoi to speed up resettlement to make sure that the expressway project would be on right track.

Construction of the 61.3-km road, which allows for a designed speed of 100 km per hour, is expected to be completed after 42 months of construction. The project also comprises six junctions, 29 bridges and other facilities.

Its total investment capital of VND8.1 trillion (USD450 million) will be funded from a Japanese ODA loan worth VND6.1 trillion via the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the counter capital from the State budget, which will be used for site clearance, management cost and reserve.

A consortium of local construction companies has been named as the contractor of the expressway project, including Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation 8 (Cienco 8), Thang Long Corp., Truong Son Corp. and Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corp. Meanwhile, technical supervision will be covered by Japanese consultants.

The expressway starts in Dong Anh District in Hanoi and finishes near Thai Nguyen City. Transport experts estimated the road would share 70-80% of the transport circulation with National Highway 3 after opening it to traffic.

After completion scheduled for 2013, the travel time from Hanoi to Thai Nguyen will be halved to only 45 minutes.

Hanoi-Thai Nguyen expressway is also part of 12 expressway sections stretching through the country that have been scheduled for construction until 2020. Amongst 12 road sections, one has been completed, three are under way, and three will get off the ground this year using State finances and ODA loans. These include Trung Luong-My Thuan, My Thuan-Can Tho, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau, Noi Bai-Halong and Danang-Quang Ngai.

The Vietnam Road Administration in July submitted to the transport ministry the final report on the master north-south road plan which will link Phap Van of Hanoi to Can Tho Bridge in the Mekong Delta.

The cross-country road will be divided into 16 sections, with a total length of 1,811 km, around 74 km shorter than National Highway 1A, the country’s current backbone. Vietnam will need a hefty budget of VND312.8 trillion (USD18.4 billion) for the project from now to 2020.

In the first phase, the first four road sections with a total length of 222km will be finished next year at a total cost of VND53.13 trillion (USD3.1 billion). The next sections will be built in the second phase from 2010 to 2020 with a total length of 1,082 km, while the third phase will develop the remaining stretches of over 500km.