PM inspects expressway construction projects in central region

The Government leader made the order during his inspection tour to some sub-projects of the North-South Expressway's eastern wing, namely Van Phong-Nha Trang, Chi Thanh-Van Phong, and Hoai Nhon-Quy Nhon; along with the Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot expressway project.

The Van Phong-Nha Trang expressway section, 83.35km in lenght, traverses four district-level localities of Khanh Hoa province. Invested with over VND11.8 trillion (US$465.6 million), its construction was launched in January 2023 and is expected to be completed in December 2025.

The Chi Thanh-Van Phong section is 48.05km long and runs through five district-level localities of Phu Yen province. It has total investment of more than VND10.73 trillion. This sub-project started in January 2023 and is scheduled to finish in December 2025.

The 70.1km section of Hoai Nhon-Quy Nhon crosses six district-level localities of Binh Dinh province and is invested with VND12.4 trillion. Work started on this section in January 2023 and is scheduled to be completed on September 30, 2025.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot expressway project is 117.5km long in total, including about 32.7km through Khanh Hoa and 84.8km through the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. Comprising three sub-projects, it is set to be completed in 2026 and put into use entirely in 2027.

Earlier, on April 28, the Prime Minister attended a hybrid ceremony in the south central province of Ninh Thuan to inaugurate the Cam Lam-Vinh Hao expressway and open the Dien Chau-Bai Vot expressway in the north central province of Nghe An to traffic.

They are the two components of the North-South Expressway project.

The 78.5km Cam Lam-Vinh Hao Expressway, running through the three coastal provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan, was invested with over VND8.92 trillion (nearly US$352 million) in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) and has a designed maximum speed of 90km per hour. It shortens the travel time from Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest economic hub, to Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa) to about 5 hours by car, instead of 8 hours as before.

Meanwhile, the 50.5km Dien Chau-Bai Vot section runs through the two central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. The VND11-trillion expressway can shorten the travel time from Ha Noi to Vinh city of Nghe An to just over 3 hours by car.

The two new roads help increase the total length of the currently operational expressway to 1,226 km out of the planned 2,064 km length of the North-South Expressway from Huu Nghi border gate in the northern province of Lang Son to Nam Can town in the southernmost province of Ca Mau.

Aside from this route, many inter-regional expressways are also being built nationwide. Viet Nam targets 3,000km of expressways by 2025 and 5,000km by 2030./.