On March 3, Quang Ninh province organized a groundbreaking ceremony for the project of Van Don-Mong Cai expressway in Van Don district.
Prominent among those were Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien, Chairman of the NA's Committee on Economic Affairs Vu Hong Thanh and Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.
Quang Ninh leaders attending at the ceremony were Secretary of the provincial Party’s Committee Nguyen Van Doc and Chairman of the province Nguyen Duc Long.
As designed, the 80.2km-long highway with four lanes will run through the districts of Van Don, Tien Yen, Dam Ha and Hai Ha, and Mong Cai city.
The highway will be constructed in the investment form of public-private partnership (PPP), under build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract at total cost of more than 11 trillion VND (474.4 million USD). Construction is expected to be completed within 22 months.
On completion, the expressway will connect with the Hai Phong-Ha Long and Ha Long-Van Don highways, creating the longest highway in Vietnam that runs from Lao Cai in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai to Mong Cai via Hanoi and Hai Phong.
The highway will serve as an important transport gateway linking Vietnam and China and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), helping boost cross-border trade and turn Quang Ninh into a trade and service hub.
The Van Don-Mong Cai highway is also expected to facilitate access to Van Don international airport which officially opened in the beginning of this year.
Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung praised Quang Ninh for the province’s great efforts to raise investments to develop its transport infrastructure system.
He also highly appreciated the considerable support from local people living in the area that the highway runs through and asked the provincial leaders to pay much attention to these residents’ lives and jobs after the land clearance period.
Quang Ninh should continue to offer investors with favorable conditions to carry out this BOT project and tighten the state management concerning the implementation and operation of BOT projects in the province in general, he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister underlined that the Government will strongly support the province to conduct projects and programs for the sake of rapid and sustainable socio-economic development.
Quang Ninh’s Chairman Nguyen Duc Long confirmed the project’s important role in boosting the socio-economic development of the province in the future. He gave great thanks for the Government’s support and committed to supplying investors with good working conditions and keeping strengthening the state management to ensure the efficiency of the project.
By Phuong Loan
