Also attending the event at the Ho Chi Minh City bridge were Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung; Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh; leaders and former leaders of the Party, State, ministries, departments and central branches; leaders of provinces and cities.

Attending the groundbreaking ceremony at the bridge points in Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Dak Lak provinces were Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha; Secretary General of the National Assembly and Head of the National Assembly Office Bui Van Cuong; Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang; Secretary of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Party Committee Pham Viet Thanh; Secretary of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Hong Linh; Secretary of the Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dinh Trung; leaders of the Government Office, central ministries, branches and centrally-run provinces and cities.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony of 3 projects.

The Ring Road 3 project has a total length of 76.3 km, passing through Ho Chi Minh City (47.35 km), Dong Nai (11.26 km), Binh Duong (10.76 km), Long An (6.81 km). The total investment of the project is about 75,378 billion VND; it is expected to be basically completed in 2025 and put into operation from 2026. The scale of the phased phase will have 4 expressway lanes and parallel roads on both sides.

The Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project Phase 1 is 53.7 km long, with a total investment of more than 19,000 billion VND. The starting point of the project intersects with the National Highway 1 bypass through Bien Hoa City, and the end point intersects with National Highway 56 (Ba Ria - Vung Tau). It is expected that after the completion of this expressway, the travel time from Ho Chi Minh City to Ba Ria - Vung Tau will be shortened to only about 70 minutes instead of 150 minutes as at present.

Thus, after completion, the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway cluster will connect the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay expressway, Ben Luc expressway (under construction), and the routes connecting to Long Thanh airport will form a backbone traffic axis to solve traffic congestion on National Highway 51.

Along with that, this expressway axis will maximize the potential of Cai Mep - Thi Vai seaport, Long Thanh international airport, promoting the socio-economic development of Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces in particular and the Southeast region in general.

The Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway Project Phase 1 is approximately 117.5 km long, with a total investment of nearly VND21,000 billion. The Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway is designed with a maximum speed of 100 km/h and a scale of 4 lanes. According to the plan, by 2025, the project will basically complete some sections with high traffic volume, complete the entire route in 2026 and put the entire project into operation in 2027.

At the groundbreaking ceremony of the projects, representatives of leaders of ministries, branches, localities, people whose projects pass through and are affected, as well as representatives of design consultants, supervisors, and construction contractors spoke, expressing their joy at the attention and investment of the Party and State in the projects, creating new opportunities to promote socio-economic development in the project areas and the whole country, improving the material and spiritual life of the people. The delegates pledged to continue to make efforts, carry out tasks within their scope of responsibility and continue to join hands, unanimously, coordinate, and create favorable conditions for project implementation so that the projects are completed safely, with quality, and on schedule; and effectively exploit the projects, etc.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates performed the groundbreaking ceremony of the projects.

Speaking at the event and giving the order to start construction of three projects simultaneously, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the 13th National Party Congress continued to identify the construction of a synchronous infrastructure system as one of three strategic breakthroughs, prioritizing the development of a number of key national projects on transportation, climate change adaptation...; setting a target of striving for about 5,000 km of expressways nationwide by 2030.

Accordingly, by 2025 the country needs to reach 3,000 km and by 2026 - 2030 strive to have an additional 2,000 km of expressways. In the period 2000 - 2021, the country has only invested in and put into operation 1,163 km of expressways. Thus, in the 9-year period from 2021 to 2030, the country needs to invest and build nearly 4 times the number of kilometers of expressways built over the past 20 years.

In response to that task, since the beginning of the term (2021) to date, the country has inaugurated and put into operation an additional 566 km of expressways, bringing the total number of expressways nationwide to 1,729 km; projects under construction, with a total length of 350 km; projects started since the beginning of 2023, with a total length of 1,406 km. Thus, together with 1,729 km put into operation and the total length of expressways of projects under construction, started by the end of June 2023 is 1,756 km; If we are determined and strive, we can basically complete the goal of having over 3,000 km of highway nationwide by 2025. In addition, a number of projects are expected to start construction from now until 2024 with a total length of about 284 km, which is a premise for successfully implementing the goal of 5,000 km of highway by 2030.

The Prime Minister emphasized that in order to implement the Party's Resolution on highway development, the Government has directed ministries and local branches to accelerate the investment progress to complete the entire North-South Eastern Expressway connecting Lang Son to Ca Mau, connecting the political center of Hanoi and the economic center of Ho Chi Minh City; continue to study and deploy horizontal expressways and beltways passing through many provinces and cities, ensuring synchronous and smooth connectivity across regions and the whole country, promoting socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security of the region and the country.

The Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project; the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway project; the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project all apply their own specific mechanisms regarding: Decentralization, assigning localities as the competent authorities to implement the project; applying the mechanism of mobilizing resources for the project combining the central and local budgets, as well as other legal capital sources; applying designated bidding to select contractors for the project...

According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the work of compensation, site clearance, and resettlement support for people of these projects is very difficult, but localities have mobilized the entire political system to participate, with 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.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh listened to a report on the investment project to build Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 3.

In a very short time, about 1 year compared to the average of 2 years compared to the usual implementation method, all levels and sectors, especially the Ministry of Transport and localities where the project passes through, had to carry out a huge amount of work: Deploying investment preparation work, establishing technical designs and estimates, selecting contractors, clearing land... to simultaneously start construction of 3 projects with the basic goal of completing in 2025 and putting the entire project into synchronous operation in 2026.

“The construction of these three important transport projects is especially meaningful as the projects pass through the Central, Central Highlands and Southwestern regions, with the current number of highway kilometers still low compared to other regions,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

Appreciating, acknowledging and praising the efforts and sense of responsibility of ministries, branches, localities and units and thanking the people of Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces where the projects are being implemented for their willingness to give up land and move their houses to make way for the projects, the Prime Minister said that the commencement of the projects is just the first step, the work ahead is still very large and full of challenges.

Therefore, in order for the project to be completed safely, with quality and on schedule, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the provinces and cities assigned as project management agencies to focus on directing and requiring the Project Management Board, supervision consultants and contractors to promote the highest sense of responsibility, develop a scientific, detailed and appropriate construction plan and method, ensure efficiency, construction quality and organize safe and smooth traffic, maintain environmental sanitation; at the same time, mobilize human resources and modern machinery and equipment for construction; strictly comply with technical requirements and regulations of relevant laws, and prevent corruption and negativity.

The Ministry of Transport, provinces and cities direct investors, especially leaders, to closely and resolutely manage and control quality, progress and investment capital throughout the project implementation process, ensuring that component projects are completed on schedule and with required quality; require design consultants and supervision consultants to enhance their responsibilities, regularly inspect and supervise to ensure safety, quality and progress; prevent and combat corruption, negativity and waste...

The Prime Minister reminded the People's Committees of provinces and cities to carry out site clearance and technical infrastructure relocation to ensure the handover of 100% of the site area in the third quarter of 2023. Special attention should be paid to resettlement and support for production stabilization so that people have new places to live and new jobs that are equal to and better than the old ones. The Prime Minister called on people whose land had to be recovered for the project to support the State's major policy and create favorable conditions for project construction units.

The Prime Minister said that the Government will always pay attention and give strong direction to complete these three projects as well as other infrastructure development investment projects on schedule and with quality; meeting the needs of socio-economic development, improving people's lives and the goals of the 13th National Party Congress, other resolutions of the Party, the National Assembly and the Party Committees of provinces and cities in the project areas.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, localities, units and each individual to seriously implement projects to ensure quality, progress; safety, technique, aesthetics, ecological environment; not to increase capital unreasonably, not to divide bidding packages; to fight corruption, negativity, group interests, waste at all stages; to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the people, to ensure the harmony of interests of the State, people and enterprises; to promptly reward good performance and handle violations.

News and photos: VNA