Work on the southern region’s second major expressway, which is expected to help boost economic development in the area, will begin in HCM City on October 3.

The road through HCMC and neighboring Dong Nai Province, where Long Thanh District and Dau Giay Town will serve as major junctions, is a continuation of the North-South Highway project, which is expected to stretch over around 7,100 kilometers in 2020.

The HCMC-Trung Luong Highway through the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, the first major highway project in the region, will open to traffic later this year.

The project’s contractor, China Road & Bridge Corporation, has signed a contract worth more than VND1.38 trillion ($77.4 million) to work on the four-lane 55-kilometer expressway.

Construction will last for 32 months and the highway will open to traffic in 2012, the ministry said.

State-owned Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) will invest in the project. The first stage is expected to cost US$932.4 million, including $516.5 million in Official Development Assistance funds and a $410.2 million commercial loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Some $5.7 million will be raised by VEC.

The second stage will be fully funded by an ADB loan, the amount of which has yet to be released.

About 20 years of toll fees are expected to return the investment.

Nguyen Thi Minh, deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 9 Land Compensation Board, said the highway project had saved itself from the controversy as relocated residents had been promised “higher” compensation than other projects.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien