Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong on September 2 cut the ribbon to put into service part of Ho Chi Minh City ’s key East-West avenue .

The section, built under the first phase of the East-West avenue project, has a length of 18.4 km with seven crossing bridges, eight bridges for pedestrians and 14 crossing points.

It is able to accommodate six lanes of vehicles, helping significantly address traffic jams in the city as well as shorten travel times between inner districts and to Long An province.

HCM City Mayor Le Hoang Quan affirmed that the East- West avenue will contribute greatly to developing new urban areas to the east and south of HCM City and reshaping the city’s infrastructure.
The avenue will also help promote the city’s socio-economic development, improve citizens’ living conditions and create a driving force for municipal growth in the future, the Mayor said.

He asked construction units to focus all efforts on finishing the project by completing phase two as scheduled for October 2010.

At the inaugural ceremony, the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam, Sakaba Mitsuo, highlighted the East-West avenue as a success in Vietnam-Japan cooperation and expressed his hope that the avenue will be used effectively for the city’s development.

On the occasion, the Japanese diplomat unveiled his country’s desire to further boost cooperation with Vietnam in the development of transport infrastructure and information technology.

The East- West avenue is designed to have a total length of 21.89 km, including 1.49 km crossing over the Saigon river.

The avenue encompasses ten newly-built bridges, three existing upgraded bridges, and ten crossing bridges for pedestrians.

Investment capital poured in the avenue is over 660.6 million USD, 64.82 percent of which was sourced from the Japanese Government’s ODA loans.

With construction begun in April, 2005, the East- West avenue is expected to be fully open to traffic in October, 2010./.