The 55-km expressway, often called the HCMC-Long Thanh –Dau Giay expressway project as it will also connect the future Long Thanh International Airport, is the first section of the north-south expressway.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony in HCMC’s District 9, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the expressway would play an important role in linking the city’s East-West Highway and another expressway from HCMC to Trung Luong in the Mekong Delta’s Tien Giang Province.

In January 2007, the Prime Minister approved a plan for building the expressway connecting HCMC with Dong Nai to be developed by Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) – a State-owned company under the Ministry of Transport. One month later, the transport ministry approved the investment plan of the project.

However, the project had undergone changes, before the revised investment plan was approved again by the transport ministry in August 2008.

Under the design, the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay road will have four lanes in the first phase scheduled for completion in 2012. In the second phase, the road will be extended into eight lanes on a 24-km section from An Phu in HCMC to Long Thanh in Dong Nai, and six lanes on the remaining 31-km section from Long Thanh to Dau Giay.

It is capitalized at US$932.4 million for the first phase, of which the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide over US$516 million, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide loans of US$ 410 million. The remaining US$5.7 million will be contributed by the project owner VEC.

VEC planned to collect toll fees on the expressway in 32 years to recoup its investment, with the fee estimated at VND900 per kilometer.

A top executive of VEC told the Daily that his company had got approval from the Government in preparing for three other expressway projects, including the Hanoi-Lang Son and Ha Long-Mong Cai sections in the north, and Ben Luc-Long Thanh – a section that connects Mekong Delta’s Long An Province with Dong Nai Province.

Besides, the corporation is developing the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh and Noi Bai-Lao Bao expressway projects in the north.

* In related development, BIDV Expressway Development Company (BEDC) has got approval from the Government for building the Than Cuu Nghia T-Junction, the first construction component of an expressway project connecting Trung Luong in Tien Giang Province with My Thuan Bridge near Vinh Long Province.

BEDC, established by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and some local economic groups, will start construction on the project before signing a deal with relevant authorities over the project.

Trung Luong-My Thuan road section is part of the Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho expressway that aims to connect Tien Giang Province with Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta.

The whole Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho road, to be developed under the build-operate-transfer form, will start from Trung Luong T-Junction some 70km south of HCMC, go to the cable-stayed My Thuan Bridge near Vinh Long Province and end up in Can Tho City.

The design of Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho expressway has been completed by Transport Engineering and Design Inc. (TEDI) under the transport ministry.

This 82-km expressway is planned to have four traffic lanes in the initial period and expandable to six lanes as traffic demand increases, and should be open to traffic before 2015.