A large ship docks at Cai Mep International Terminal in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. (Photo: VNA) The south-eastern region, including Ho Chi Minh City and the fiveprovinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, and Tay Ninh,have played a major role in the country’s economic growth.
The region contributes more than 30% of the country’s GDP and 45%of state revenue though it has only 23% of the population.
However, it is facing problems related to traffic infrastructure,which has not been developed, causing high freight costs, affecting businesses.
Under a plan to 2030, the region will have 970km of highways, butnow has only 10% of that due to a lack of public investment and landacquisition challenges.
Experts have called for continued efforts to improve the trafficinfrastructure and implementation of reforms needed to make the south-easternregion a leading economic engine of the country.
A number of large inter-regional transport projects in the regionhave begun to be implemented, which are expected to form a complete transportnetwork and synchronous connection among modes of transport.
This also helps improve the efficiency of logistics activities oflarge economic and industrial zones in the southern key economic region.
Authorities of the localities in the south-eastern region arestrengthening comprehensive cooperation in all fields, including speeding upkey transport projects to meet development requirements.
Key transport projects being actively implemented
Ring Road No. 3 project, running 90km and costing nearly 75.4trillion VND (3.2 billion USD), passes through HCM City and the three provincesof Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An.
It will have six lanes designed for speeds of 80-100km per hourfor commuting and two lanes for emergency stops.
The first phase of the project will stretch 76 km long with fourlanes and each locality is in charge of clearing the site and building thesection in their territory. It is expected to open to traffic in late 2025 andbe fully complete in 2026.
Ring Road No. 3 is a strategic traffic axis, removing trafficbottlenecks, connecting many seaports, reducing travel time and logisticscosts, as well as opening up new directions for urban, industrial, commercial,and service development.
Therefore, the four localities are focusing on speeding up theprogress of the project to soon complete the construction of the ring road.
The construction of Ring Road No. 3 started on June 18 after HCMCity handed over more than 81% of the land needed for the section of theproject that crosses the city.
Besides the project’s site requirements being guaranteed,organising bidding to select contractors and consultants has been implementedbasically on schedule, according to Luong Minh Phuc, head of the HCM CityManagement Board for Traffic Works Construction and Investment.
Work on other sections of the road running through Dong Nai, Binh Duong,and Long An also began on June 18, 29 and 30, respectively.
Construction of the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway project passingthrough Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces also started on June 18.
As a key national expressway project, the project is expected toease traffic congestion on National Highway No. 51, which is becomingovercrowded and causing more and more serious traffic problems.
It will help facilitate travel between Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tauprovinces and HCM City in the southern key economic zone.
It will run parallel to the National Highway No. 51 and cutthrough the HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway and Ben Luc-Long Thanhexpressway.
The first phase of the project will have a length of 53.7km,including a 34.2km section in Dong Nai, with an estimated investment of nearly 18trillion VND (755 million USD).
The new expressway will be carried out under three componentprojects and is scheduled to be completed by 2025 and open to traffic in 2026.
It will have four to six lanes in the first phase and six to eightlanes in the second phase.
In addition, Ba Ria-Vung Tau started work on the Phuoc An bridgeproject on June 18, and it is expected to be completed in five years.
Spanning over the Thi Vai River, the bridge costs a total of 4.8trillion VND (205 million USD), with a total length of 4.3km.
Once completed, the bridge will link Phu My town of Ba Ria-Vung Tauwith Nhon Trach district in neighbouring Dong Nai province.
Vo Van Minh, Chairman of the Binh Duong Provincial People’sCommittee, said the province is focusing on researching and investing in keytraffic axes and arteries to create motivation to attract more investment,including sections of Ring Road No.3 and No. 4, and the HCM City-Thu Dau Mot-ChonThanh Expressway.
The Ring Road No. 4 section in Binh Duong has a length of about48.3km.
Once fully completed by 2026, the under-construction Long ThanhInternational Airport project in Dong Nai, together with the existing Tan SonNhat International Airport in HCM City, will help accelerate development of thesouth-eastern region.
Besides the seaport systems in HCM City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, DongNai will have new Phuoc An sea port in 2024, which will contribute to enhancingthe competitiveness of the logistics sector, and promoting socio-economicdevelopment in the southern region.
Strengthening cooperation in transport connectivity
Recently, leaders of HCM City and the provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duongand Ba Ria-Vung Tau had a meeting to strengthen cooperation in theimplementation of inter-provincial transport projects.
Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces have agreed to build four newbridges connecting the two provinces, namely Hieu Liem 2, Tan An-An Lac, Tan Hien-ThuongTan and Thạnh Hoi 2.
They also plan to build more roads to enhance connectivity betweenBinh Duong’s Di An city and Dong Nai’s Bien Hoa city.
Chairman of the HMC City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said thecity would discuss with Dong Nai province to propose the Ministry of Transportstudy and expand the 1A component project of the Ring Road No.3’s Tan Van-NhonTrach section, which consists of a 1.92km segment in HCM City, and a 6.3kmsegment spanning across Dong Nai, ensuring synchronous operation of the entireRing Road No. 3 project.
Leaders of Binh Duong and Tay Ninh provinces have committed toboosting comprehensive cooperation in all fields, focusing on inter-provincialtransport projects that enhance regional connectivity.
They have agreed to the planning of two roads and bridgesconnecting provincial road No. 789 in Tay Ninh and provincial road No. 744 in BinhDuong in the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050.
Luong Anh Dung, Deputy Director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province'sDepartment of Transport, said the province planned to develop a modern, highlyconnected transport system.
At first it would focus on completing the Bien Hoa-Vung TauExpressway project by the end of 2025.
Construction of the first phase of Ring Road No. 4 through fivesouthern localities, including HCM City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An, and BaRia-Vung Tau, and generally the Southern Key Economic Region, was expected tostart next year and be completed in 2030.
It would begin at the planned Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway in BaRia-Vung Tau province’s Phu My town and end at Tan Cang - Hiep Phuoc Port inHCM City’s Nha Be district./.
VNA
