National Highway 279 connecting Dien Bien city to Tay Trang International Border Gate between Vietnam and Laos in Dien Bien province will be upgraded. ( Photo: baogiaothong.vn)

Hanoi - The Department of Roads of Vietnam (DRVN) has just proposed a project to the Ministry of Transport to upgrade and renovate national highways connecting Vietnam with northern Laos and China.

Under the proposal, the project will use loans from the World Bank (WB) and will be implemented in five years from 2025 to 2029.

Accordingly, the section of National Highway 279 at Dien Bien-Tay Trang Border Gate in Dien Bien province with a total length of 38km will be upgraded to level 3 with two lanes and 12m wide.

Meanwhile, two sections of National Highway 4H with a length of 94km will be upgraded to a level 4 mountain road and widened to two lanes.

For National Highway 217, a 52km-long section from National Highway 1 to Ho Chi Minh Expressway in Thanh Hoa province will be renovated and upgraded to ensure technical standards of a level 3 road of a plains region with two lanes and a width of 12m. In particular, the section from Km8 400 to Km13 255 will be built at a width of 17m and a road surface of 15m to be in sync with the scale of the central road of the Bong urban area being built.

The completion of National Highway 217 will create conditions to develop goods trade between Vietnam and Laos through the Na Meo International Border Gate and connect to the North-South transportation system and seaports in the region.

According to the proposal of the DRVN, total investment is estimated at 9.4 trillion VND, equivalent to about 340 million USD, of which, WB loan capital will be over 7.5 trillion VND (315 million USD) and used for construction, technical designing and consulting, construction supervision and contingency costs.

Domestic counterpart capital of about 1.9 trillion VND (81 million USD) will be spent for project management, remaining construction consulting, and other costs including site clearance, tax and fee payments and contingency costs.

The department said that the investment in the project would contribute to improving traffic capacity, meeting increasing transport needs, shortening the distance between border gates and seaports, and reducing driving time through the road, which would help reduce transportation costs, environmental pollution and traffic accidents.

The project would also serve the socio-economic development of the area and strengthen the East-West corridor connection promoting trade with northern Laos and China.