A 20-km section of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway, which links the Vietnamese southern hub with its neighboring Dong Nai province, was opened to traffic on Friday.
The section, part of the entire 55-km expressway, connects Ho Chi Minh City’s Belt 2 in District with the National Highway 51.
The new section can accommodate container trucks and lorries with a load of over 10 tons, its investor, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), said at the inauguration ceremony on Belt 2.
The construction of the section began in April 2013 and has now completed with a cost of VND2.43 trillion (US$114.37 million), according to the VEC.
VEC deputy general director Pham Hong Quang said the new facility will help shorten the distances and travel times from Ho Chi Minh City to its neighboring localities.
The section will, for instance, cut short the distance from the city to the resort city of Vung Tau from 120 km to 95 km and reduce the travel time from two hours and thirty minutes to only 80 minutes, Quang said.
Similarly, the distance from the city to Dong Nai’s Long Thanh District will be shortened from 45 km to 22 km and the travel time cut down from 60 minutes to only 20 minutes, he added.
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong praised the EVC for completing the section six months ahead of the time limit.
He also called on the investor to step up the construction of the other parts of the project so that the entire expressway can be made available in early 2015.
The expressway is 55 km long, running from the city through Long Thanh Town in Dong Nai Province to reach Dau Giay Town, also in Dong Nai.
The expressway is 27.5 meters wide and has four lanes for vehicles travelling at 100 kph.
The total investment in the road is about VND20.63 trillion ($974.3 million), most of which is financed by the Asia Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
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