Travel time by car between HCMC and the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang is now shortened by half as southern Vietnam’s first expressway was opened to traffic.

Before the inauguration of this 62-km thruway, National Highway 1A was the only road connecting the city and the province, so traffic was too heavy for motorists to cover a distance of 60-70 km between the two localities for less than one and a half hours.

There were previously around 50,000 vehicles traversing this national highway, the country’s north-south backbone, with which the new expressway runs in parallel.

The maximum speed on the superhighway is 100 km per hour and the minimum speed is 50 km per hour, so motorcycles and other rudimentary vehicles are banned from using the road. But on the opening day, some motorcycles were seen on the road, so traffic police and security guards were sent out to give guidance to these motorcyclists.

The road starts from Cho Dem (Dem market) area in HCMC’s Binh Chanh District, passes through Long An Province and ends in Tien Giang’s Chau Thanh District.

About VND10 trillion has been spent on the project, which has four interchanges with one in Cho Dem junction in the city, one in Ben Luc in Long An Province, one in Tan An (also in Long An) and one in Than Cuu Nghia in Tien Giang.

For the time being, motorists do not pay for use of the toll expressway and toll collections are expected to begin in April.

BIDV Expressway Development Company (BEDC) had bought the toll collection right to the road for 25 years for VND9.15 trillion (over US$508 million). BEDC is a consortium of major corporations, including Vinashin, PetroVietnam, Bitexco, VNPT and Song Da Corporation, and lead stakeholder the Bank for Investment and Development for Vietnam (BIDV).

HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway, which broke ground in December 2004, is part of the HCMC-Can Tho Expressway project.

VietNamNet/SGT