The Vietnam Road Administration has submitted to the transport ministry the final report on the master north-south road plan which will connect Phap Van of Hanoi City and the Can Tho Bridge in the southern Mekong Delta.

The cross-country road will be divided into 16 sections, with a total length of 1,811 km, around 74 km shorter than National Highway 1A, the country's current backbone.

Vietnam will need a hefty budget of VND312.8 trillion (US$18.4 billion) for the project from now to 2020 and thereafter.

In the first phase, the first four road sections with a total length of 222 km will be finished by 2010 at a total cost of VND53.13 trillion(US$3.1 billion). The next sections will be built in the second phase from 2010 to 2020 with a total length of 1,082 km.

The third phase will develop the remaining sections and expand Phap Van-Cau Gie Expressway from four lanes to six lanes. The 30 km Phap Van-Cau Gie road in Hanoi has been already opened to traffic.

In early 2007, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the ministries of planning-investment and transport to speed up preparations for the cross-country expressway.

Two other expressways are under way in the country Cau Gie-Ninh Binh and HCMC, Tiling Luong. And the Road Administration and the State-owned Vietnam Expressway Corporation are raising funds for 13 other expressway projects.

Mai Anh Tuan, deputy head of the road administration, said the master plan would provide investors with an overview of the next backbone of the nation.

The ministry will invite local and international tenders for construction of the expressway under various investment forms such as build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-transfer (BT), build-operate-own(BOO), and public-private partnership (PPP).

Deputy Transport Minister Ngo Thinh Due said State money would go to priority road sections and that the ministry wanted greater public participation in expressway development.

As for the 12 expressway sections proposed for construction until 2020, one has been completed, two are under way, and three will get off the ground this year using State finances and official development as-sistance loans. These include HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay, Trung Luong-My Thuan, My Thuan-Can Tho and Danang-Quang Ngai.

Vietnam Cement Corporation, Binh Minh Export and Import Corporation (Bitexco) and Song Da Corporation have proposed developing four expressways - Ninh Binh -Thanh Hoa, Thanh Hoa-Vinh, Dau Giay-Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet Nha Trang.

North-south expressway is part of the eastern road corridor of the country and has 16 sections:

1. Phap Van-Cau Gie: 30 km, opened to traffic in 2002, to be expanded to six lanes after 2020

2. Cau Gie-Ninh Binh: 50 km, under construction, six lanes

3. Ninh Binh-Thanh Hoa: 121 km, six lanes

4. Thanh Hoa-Ha Tinh: 97 km, from four to six lanes

5. Ha Tinh-Quang Binh: 145 km, four lanes

6. Quang Binh-Quang Tri: 117 km, four lanes

7. Quang Tri-Da Nang: 182 km, four lanes

8. Da Nang-Quang Ngai: 130 km, from four to six lanes

9. Quang Ngai-Binh Dinh: 170 km, four lanes

10. Binh Dinh-Nha Trang: 215 km, four lanes

11. Nha Trang-Phan Thiet: 226 km, from four to six lanes

12. Phan Thiet-Dau Giay: 98 km, from four to six lanes

13. Dau Giay-Long Thanh: 43 km, from six to eight lanes

14. Long Thanh-HCMC: 58 km, from six to eight lanes

15. HCMC-Trung Luong: 37 km, eight fanes, under first-phase construction

16. Trung Luong-My Thuan and My Thuan-Can Tho: 92 km

Source: The Saigon Times Daily