Will complete the goal of having over 3,000 km of highway by 2025

On the morning of June 18, in Ho Chi Minh City, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pressed the button to start construction on three key transport projects connecting the southern region, including Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway and Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates pressed the button to start the construction of Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project and two expressways Bien Hoa-Vung Tau, Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said he was very pleased to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of 3 national transport infrastructure projects with a total length of 247 km; total investment capital of more than 115,000 billion VND, held simultaneously at 3 locations: Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Dak Lak.

“This is a series of key projects in the transport sector that will start construction this June. Yesterday, June 17, we started the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang project and coming up on June 25 is the Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Region project with a length of over 112 km and a total investment of over 85 trillion VND; the Cao Lanh - An Huu expressway with a length of 27 km and an investment of over 5.8 trillion VND connecting the two provinces of Dong Thap and Tien Giang, connecting the two vital expressways of the Mekong Delta region,” said the Prime Minister.

According to the Prime Minister, in the period 2000 - 2021, the whole country has invested in and put into operation only 1,163 km of expressways. Meanwhile, the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress sets a target of having about 5,000 km of expressways nationwide by 2030. The target by 2025 is to have 3,000 km and by 2026 - 2030, strive to have an additional 2,000 km of expressways.

"Thus, in the 9-year period from 2021 to 2030, we need to deploy investment and construction of nearly 4 times the number of kilometers of highways built in the past 20 years. From 2021 to now, the whole country has inaugurated and put into operation an additional 566 kilometers of highways, bringing the total number of highways in the country to 1,729 kilometers. Currently, many highway projects are under construction, having started construction until the end of June 2023, which is 1,756 kilometers. If we are determined and strive, we can basically complete the goal of having over 3,000 kilometers nationwide by 2025," the Prime Minister emphasized.

The head of the Government said that currently, many expressway projects are being accelerated by the Ministry of Transport and localities in carrying out procedures to submit to competent authorities for approval of investment policies. This is a premise for successfully implementing the target of 5,000km of expressways by 2030.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh gives direction speech

Three unique mechanisms to speed up progress

According to the Prime Minister, today, in Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Dak Lak jointly started construction of 3 expressway projects including Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 Project; Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project; Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway Project. These are projects that apply specific mechanisms such as promoting decentralization, the Central Government assigns localities to be the competent authorities to implement the project; applying the mechanism of mobilizing resources combining the Central and local budgets; applying designated bidding to select contractors, thereby shortening the preparation time.

To implement the projects, in addition to capital, localities have mobilized the entire political system, the support and sharing of the people, sacrificing personal interests for the common good, so the site clearance work of all 3 projects basically ensures progress.

“I commend Ho Chi Minh City for handing over 87% of the construction site in a very short time. This is a miracle to date due to the complexity of site clearance in the inner city, the large scale of compensation, and the impact on many people...”, said the Prime Minister.

In addition, the Prime Minister also emphasized that all levels and sectors, especially the Ministry of Transport and localities where the project passes through, have had to carry out a huge amount of work: implementing investment preparation, establishing technical designs and estimates, selecting contractors, clearing land, etc.

The Prime Minister said that today's results are very remarkable. However, this is only the first step, the upcoming work is still very large and full of challenges such as continuing to clear the remaining locations, including many locations with high population density, prone to complaints; preparing a large volume of construction materials and waste disposal sites that require the active participation of localities in granting mining licenses; constructing a very large volume of works in a short period of time and being affected by weather conditions...

Design of Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3. Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Department

In order for the project to be completed safely, with quality and on schedule, the Prime Minister requested that projects must ensure safety, technical, aesthetic and ecological environment; not unreasonably increase capital, not divide bid packages; fight corruption, negativity, group interests and waste at all stages.

Finally, the Prime Minister emphasized that projects must ensure the harmony of interests between the state, people and businesses; promptly reward good performance and strictly handle violations.

Committed to bringing Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 to the finish line on schedule

In his role as coordinator of the Ring Road 3 project, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai spoke on behalf of Dong Nai, Long An and Binh Duong provinces at the project groundbreaking ceremony.

He assessed that Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 is a project of “the Party’s will and the people’s heart”, a connecting road, a road of development. The work done in the past time is very great and worthy of respect. However, in the coming time, Ho Chi Minh City and localities within the project scope will have to focus on completing site clearance and speeding up construction so that the project can be completed on schedule.

“On behalf of the localities within the project scope, I pledge to the Prime Minister and the People to coordinate with relevant ministries, branches, and the Central Government to closely monitor and regularly promote the project to be technically opened to traffic by the end of 2025 and completed in 2026,” Mr. Mai pledged.

Construction of 3 traffic projects worth over 115 trillion VND started simultaneously in the South. 3 key traffic projects in the Southern region including Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3, Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau officially started.

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