A 26 kmsection of the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Highway linking Soc Son district in Hanoi to Vinh Phuc province is scheduled to open to traffic on December 27.

According to Le Kim Thanh, director of the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Highway project, the section is constructed at a cost of 2.554 trillion VND (120 billion USD) by Posco, a Republic of Korea contractor.

The road has four lanes allowing vehicles to travel at maximum 80 km per hour. It is expected to ease pressure for Highways 2, 32 and 70, shortening the time to travel from Hanoi to Vinh Phuc.

The Noi Bai-Lao Cai Highway is part of the Kunming – Hai Phong road corridor included in the cooperation programme among the six Mekong Sub-region countries of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and China.

Launched in 2009 and scheduled to complete by the second quarter of 2014, the highway has a total length of 245 km crossing Hanoi and northern provinces of Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Yen Bai and Lao Cai.

The first phase of the project has a total investment of nearly 20 trillion VND (about 1.25 billion USD), mostly from loans provided by the Asian Development Bank.-VNA