Truong Van Da road in Binh Chanh District, HCM City (Photo: sggp.gov.vn) Ho Chi Minh City authorities plan to complete construction of the rural transport network in five outlying districts by 2020.
Construction of the main roads and bridges in the districts' communes has been completed, after six years of implementation under the National Programme of Building New Rural Areas.
All commune-level roads in Cu Chi, Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Nha Be and Can Gio districts have been either asphalted or cemented.
The remaining roads to be built are in hamlets. They will connect to the larger main roads in the communes.
The road system has greatly benefited local residents and businesses.
At least 100 households, for example, in an area in Hamlet 1 in Binh Chanh district's Phong Phu commune no longer depend on boats to travel.
They can now use the Xom Go bridge, which was built in 2013. Prior to the construction, the Xom Lo area in Hamlet 1 had been isolated when there were heavy rains, according to a local resident.
The time to travel from Xom Lo to Phong Phu commune's central area has fallen from an hour to 20 minutes.
Nguyen Van Truong, Deputy Chairman of the Binh Chanh District People's Committee, said the rural road network would eventually have connections to roads in the central city as well as other outlying districts. In Can Gio district's Ly Nhon commune, which is HCM City's farthest rural district, roads have been built to hamlets and fields, facilitating the transport of agriculture produce.
Duong Minh Hoang, whose family produces salt in Ly Nhon's Ly Thai Buu hamlet, said: "Thanks to the construction of roads that link to fields, vehicles can travel to the fields to transport salt. My family no longer has to carry salt on a shoulder pole."
Under the national programme to build new rural areas, the city has built and upgraded more than 1,500 rural roads with a total length of more than 1,100km.
It has also built 18 new large bridges and upgraded 512 bridges on district-level roads.
The cost of building roads and bridges came from various sources, including the state budget, investors and local residents.
Le Thanh Liem, Deputy Chairman of municipal People's Committee, said that HCM City was one of the few localities in the country that had fulfilled all the transportation criteria required under the national new rural area programme.
The city has received warm support from local residents in implementing the programme, he said.
Local residents donated more than 124 ha of land and labour days to help build roads in the five outlying districts.-VNA
