The first section is the Cao Bo-Mai Son Expressway in the northern provinces of Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh. It is one of three public-funded sections of the transnational expressway on which work is due to start this year, the minister said.

The 15-kilometer expressway will connect Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway with National Highway 1, and is planned to be a two-lane road with a budget of VND5.29 trillion ($227 million).

The second is the 98-kilometer Cam Lo-La Son Expressway, which has an approved total investment of VND7.7 trillion ($330.28 million), in the central povinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. 

Once completed, the Cam Lo-La Son section will connect Ho Chi Minh Highway with the nearly-complete La Son-Tuy Loan Expressway and the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway, boosting connectivity between key economic regions from Quang Tri to Quang Ngai.

Work on the third project, the 6.6 km long My Thuan 2 Bridge which will cross the Tien River to connect the southern provinces of Tien Giang and Vinh Long, will commence at the end of the year, the minister said. 

"From now until December, all construction work packages on these three public projects will begin, save for the main package of My Thuan 2 Bridge which will begin in the first quarter of next year." 

The said his ministry will invite inspectors and auditors to participate in projects to monitor progress from the very beginning, to supervise and ensure the project complies with regulations. It will continue to work with localities to speed up ground clearance and resettlement, he added.

So far, the ministry has allocated over VND4 trillion ($171.57 million) for localities to carry out ground clearance procedures. 

The three projects are part of 11 sections of the North-South Expressway that will cost over VND118 trillion ($5.06 billion) in total, of which VND55 trillion ($2.36 billion) will be funded by the state.

The remaining eight sections will be in the form of public-private partnerships (PPP), for which bidding will be held in August. Minister The said so far his ministry has received interest from 120 investors. 

Together, the 11 sections will stretch 654 kilometers from Nam Dinh Province near Hanoi to Vinh Long Province to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. They are part of the ongoing 2,000-kilometer long transnational expressway, which is scheduled to be completed by 2025.