Dong Ha city in the central province of Quang Tri. (Photo: VNA/VNS) With a coastal line of 75 km and beautiful beaches, the province has hugepotential to develop marine tourism and resorts.
But according to authorities, a lack of good infrastructure is hinderingopportunities for ports and the province to grow.
In 2019, 23.5 km of road construction was completed costing 630 billion VND,linking at Cu Viet bridge in Trieu Phong district’s Trieu An commune and Hai Langdistrict’s Hai Duong commune.
The road has helped create good connections for the southeastern coastaleconomic zone, but more transport links would go a long way to furtherdevelopment.
Under a resolution approved at the province’s Party Congress, Quang Tri provincewould build roads along the remaining part of its coastal line including a44-km long route from Cua Viet bridge to the neighbouring Quang Binh provinceand another 12-km-long section from the coastal line to Dong Ha city.
The projects are expected to be finished by 2025 and cost 2.97 trillion VND, ofwhich 2.41 trillion VND is from the central budget and the rest from the localbudget.
According to the province’s Transport Department, the roads would pave the wayfor the province to form an axis for coastal urban development, helping expand DongHa city to the east and improve connectivity between the province to otherlocalities.
As transport infrastructure is improved, the province expects to attract moreinvestors to marine tourism in local beaches like Cua Tung, Cua Viet, Gio Haior Vinh Thai.
Also in the next five years, Quang Tri will build a road connecting the westernand eastern branches of the Ho Chi Minh National Highway.
Le Duc Tien, vice chairman of the province’s People’s Committee said that oncethe link road opens, it would offer a choice to access erosion-prone areasalong Ho Chi Minh Highway instead of travelling through the neighbouring QuangBinh province.
In case natural disasters happened, rescue forces would be able to reachmountainous communes in Huong Hoa and Vinh Linh provinces including Huong Lao, HuongViet, Huong Son, Huong Phung and Huong Linh communes.
The Ministry of Transport recommended the Ministry of Investment and Planningarrange funding of 440 billion VND to improve and expand National Highway No9as about 14 km of the highway from North Cua Viet port to National Highway No1was degraded.
With an improved road, cargo transportation from the seaport to westernmountainous areas and Lao Bao International Border Gate and vice versa isexpected to run smoothly.
The transport ministry also plans to open National Highway 15D in the next fiveyears.
This will link My Thuy deep sea port to La Lay International Border Gate. Theseaport is under construction in Hai An commune, Hai Lang district. With thetotal investment of more than 14 trillion VND and covering an area of 685 ha,the seaport includes ten harbours which could deal with ships with loads of upto 100,000 tonnes.
It will mainly serve the South East Quang Tri coastal economic zone, otherlocal industrial zones and handle goods from Laos, Thailand on the East-WestEconomic Corridor.
The corridor running 1,450km through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam is aneconomic development programme initiated to promote development and integrationof five Southeast Asian countries, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.The concept was agreed in 1998 at the Ministerial Conference of the GreaterMekong Subregion, organised in Manila, Philippines. This corridor becameoperational on December 12, 2006. In Vietnam, the project starts at Lao Bao InternationalBorder Gate in Quang Tri province, running along Highway No9 and 1A to Da Nang city.
Quang Tri province has four neighbouring key zones along the East-West EconomicCorridor including the Lao Bảo special trade and economic zone, Dong Ha, theNortheast economic zone, and the Cua Viet-Cua Tung-Con Co tourism and servicetriangle./.
VNA
