The section is seriously downgraded and needs the upgrade to improve traffic safety as well as traffic flow, according to the Project Management Board No. 7, which sent the proposal to the Ministry of Transport recently. The board is in charge of managing roads in southern Vietnam.

Of the estimated upgrade cost, more than VND1.4 trillion would go towards construction work and the rest for site clearance and incidental expenses.

The board said it expects to start the upgrade project next year and complete it in 2024.

The project will focus particularly on fixing downgraded sections of the highway that run through HCMC, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Can Tho. It will also upgrade a 25 km section alongside the highway.

In the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, it will widen six bridges which are narrower than the street’s width, thus causing traffic jams.

National Highway No.1 is currently one of only two routes connecting HCMC with the rest of the Mekong Delta, the other being National Highway 50.

In January, work began on the extended section of the HCMC-Mekong Delta expressway, called the My Thuan-Can Tho Expressway, to cut travel time from HCMC to Can Tho, the delta's capital, to just two hours.

The My Thuan-Can Tho section will be connected with the Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway, an extension of the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway.

The HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway, running from HCMC to Tien Giang Province, has been in use since February 2010 as the only expressway connecting the Mekong Delta with localities outside the region.