The Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai Highway project is expected to reduce traffic on National Highway 22, which is the only road connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh province. VAN CHAU/VIET NAM NEWS
After reaching a consensus with the People’s Committee of Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has petitioned Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the Ministry of Transport for permission to call for investment for the HCM City-Moc Bai Expressway project.
The expressway, which will be nearly 53.5km long, will link Ring Road No 3 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Hoc Mon district with Moc Bai, an international border gate between Vietnam and Cambodia in the southeastern province of Tay Ninh.
The expressway project will be divided into two investment phases under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and Build-Operate-Transfer models, according to a statement from the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee issued last week.
In the first phase, the entire expressway will be built with four lanes. The total capital for the phase is expected to be nearly 10.7 trillion dong ($461.6 million) under the PPP investment.
In the second phase, the number of lanes will be increased to eight on a section extending from Ring Road No 3 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Hoc Mon district to Trang Bang district in Tay Ninh province. A section from Trang Bang district to Moc Bai will be increased to six lanes.
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee will be in charge of compensation for ground clearance in the city, while the Tay Ninh Province People’s Committee will be responsible for compensation in the province.
To generate revenue for the project, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has asked the prime minister for permission to expand ground clearance at intersections between the expressway and Ring Roads No 3 and No 4 as well as to other sites in order to build logistic stations and commercial and service malls.
The city also wants permission to develop plans for urban areas near neighbouring areas at expressway intersections.
The expressway is expected to ease traffic congestion and create favourable conditions for industrial parks and export processing zones in Tay Ninh province, especially the Moc Bai Border Gate Economic Zone.
Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh province are among eight provinces and cities in the southern key economic zone.
Ho Chi Minh City’s gross regional domestic product accounts for 42 per cent of the country’s total gross domestic product.
The Moc Bai international gate in Tay Ninh Province has international exchanges with Cambodia and Thailand.
Highway No 22 is the only road linking Ho Chi Minh City with Moc Bai. A survey conducted in 2017 showed that 39,700 vehicles travelled on the highway each day, and that its designed loading capacity was 40,000 per day.
Construction of the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai Expressway is slated to be completed by 2025 with at least four lanes and expanded to six or eight lanes by 2045.
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