Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday urged the Ministry of Transport to start construction of three sections of the Eastern North-South Expressway project right at the end of August instead of the first quarter next year.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gives directions on the construction of three
sections of the Eastern North-South Expressway project while presiding over a meeting
in Ha Noi on July 8, 2020 - Photo: VGP/Quang Hieu 

 The three sections, namely Mai Son-National Highway 45, Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet, and Phan Thiet-Dau Giay, are three out of total 11 sub-projects of the North-South Expressway scheduled to be implemented between 2017-2020.

Due to negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Assembly recently approved the Cabinet's proposal to change investment form of the three sub-projects from public-private partnership to public investment, allowing them to be kick-started earlier than the previous plan.

According to the report of the Ministry of Transport, the site clearance work at these three projects have been underway, with 81.3% completed for Mai Son-National Highway 45, 95% for Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet and 76.8% for Phan Thiet-Dau Giay. 

The North-South Expressway, which is of national priority for investment in the 2017-2020 period, includes 11 sub-projects with a total length of 654km running through 13 provinces and cities. As earlier planned, three sub-projects would be financed by the state budget and the other eight under the public-private partnership and build-operate-transfer formats.

With the Legislature's recent approval, the expressway project now consists of six projects to be funded by the State budget. The expressway is estimated to cost a total of VND 118 trillion (over US$5 billion.

Up to now, more than 1,000 kilometers of expressway have been built in Viet Nam, while an addition of 900 kilometers are set to be completed by the end of 2021. 

During the 2021-2025 period, Viet Nam plans to have at least 2,000 kilometers of expressways and by 2025, the figure would be 4,000 kilometers stretching from the northern province of Lang Son to the southernmost province of Ca Mau./.