The Vietnamese Government has approved a bidding plan for a package of 12 sub-projects in the second phase of the Eastern North-South Expressway up to 2025.
The package for the Can Tho-Hau Giang section has the biggest value, at US$320 million, according to a report by the government-owned Vietnam News Agency VNA. Bidding will be open before the end of this year with completion of the work expected within three years.
Total length of the sub-project works is around 72okm including sections of Ha Tinh – Quang Tri (261km), Quang Ngai – Nha Trang (352km) and Can Tho – Ca Mau (111km). Total investment is estimated at about $5.9 billion.
VNA noted that the country has 1,163km of expressways with another 916km expected to be completed by 2023, according to the ministry of transport. That figure should grow to 5,000km in by 2030.
The North-South Expressway runs close to National Route 1 the country’s major north-south road that passes mostly along the coast. Similar to National Route 1, the Expressway starts from Lạng Sơn and ends at Cà Mau.
In February, VNA reported that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had urged earlier completion of the expressways from Khanh Hoa to Dong Nai provinces as part of the Eastern North-South Expressway project.
He also made a site inspection of the Nha Trang – Cam Lam expressway project in the central province of Khanh Hoa, a public -private partnership project. The 50km expressway is costing $239.1 million. Construction began in September 2021 and is due for completion at the end of this year.
He also inspected construction of the Cam Lam – Vinh Hao expressway passing through Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces and the Phan Thiet – Dau Giay expressway through Binh Thuan and Dong Nai provinces.
Vietnam is seeing a steady improvement in road safety. There were 2,731 road crashes between 15 December 2021 and 14 March this year, a drop of 19.34% from the same period 12 months previously. Road deaths were also lower at 1,630, a drop of 4.86% from the previous 12 months, according to data from Vietnam’s National Traffic Safety Committee.
