Hanoi (VNA) - Construction started concurrently on 12 different segments of the second phase of the North-South Expressway project (2021-2025) on January 1.
The launch ceremony was held by the Ministry of Transport and linked to sites of localities where the road sections run through.
The 12-component project covers a total length of 723.7km, of which the Ha Tinh - Quang Tri section is 260.9km, Quang Ngai - Nha Trang 352.1km and Can Tho - Ca Mau 110.9km.
The total investment was initially estimated at nearly 147 trillion VND (6.23 billion USD).
Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony for the Quang Ngai-Hoai Nhon section, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stressed that the North-South expressway project is one of the country’s important infrastructure transport corridors.
The Party and State have spent a great deal of investment in expressways, so that there will be 3,000km by 2025 and 5,000km by 2030. Only about 1,000km was built between 2000 and 2020. From now to 2025, there will be an additional 2,000km of expressways built across the country. Therefore, there will be twice as many expressways as that of the 20 years ago in the next five years, and four times that in the next 10 years, he said.
The PM emphasised this is a heavy task, and he believed the work will be done well thanks to experience of consultants, supervisors, constructors and managers, as well as the involvement of local people in localities where the project’s components are carried out.
Steel for the construction of the North-South expressway project in the 2021-2025 period is carefully prepared by contractors (Photo: VietnamPlus)
The PM recognised the efforts of the Ministry of Transport, cities and provinces as well as stakeholders to overcome difficulties to complete site clearance procedures and designs and consultancy to launch the project.
PM Chinh said the initial results are encouraging but there are difficulties ahead and challenges on site clearance, materials for the project, progress, and investment.
To complete the expressway construction from the northern border province of Lang Son to the southernmost province of Ca Mau by 2025, PM Chinh asked the Transport Ministry to direct all stakeholders to ensure the safety and quality of construction with the highest sense of responsibility.
Ministries, centrally-run agencies and authorities of 32 provinces must work closely with the Transport Ministry to tackle arising difficulties and complete the project on schedule, he said.
He asked the cities and provinces to hand over the ground for the project in the second quarter of this year, while paying due attention to the resettlement of local people.
Contractors will begin the construction of the North-South expressway project right after the groundbreaking ceremony (Photo: VietnamPlus)
At the event, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang asked the localities to continue guiding the project to soon complete ground clearance and the relocation of technical infrastructure works. He also requested that the group ensure security and order, convenient and safe traffic for people while implementing the components.
Also at the ceremony, the Ministry of Transport launched the emulation movement of Spring of the Year of the Cat in construction sites starting from January 6 (the 15th day of the last lunar month of the Year of the Tiger) to February 2 (the 16th day of first lunar month of the Year of the Cat). The Ministry of Planning and Investment also launched the emulation month to support and speed disbursement of public investment capital./.
