The Ministry of Transport has approved a plan to upgrade an 80-km section of National Highway 22B in the southeastern province of Tay Ninh, according to the province’s Department of Transport.

Sections of National Highway 22B in Tay Ninh Province will be repaired from now to 2019.

Nguyen Tan Tai, director of the Transport Department, said the VNĐ300 billion (US$13.2 million) project would be divided into three stages.

In the first stage, which starts later this year, 33km of the highway, extending from the Asian Highway three-way crossroads in Go Dau District to Tay Ninh City’s Binh Minh Commune, will be upgraded.

The second stage, which starts in 2018, will focus on the next 25km to Tan Bien District.

The last 22km of the project, which runs through the Xa Mat international border gate in Tan Bien District, will be completed in 2019.

National Highway 22B is critical to Tay Ninh because it is the gateway from HCM City to the Viet Nam-Cambodia border.

The highway was upgraded 10 years ago by the Ministry of Transport, but is now in poor condition in certain sections.

Initially, National Highway 22B was set to be invested as a BOT (build-operate-transfer) project. However, at a meeting last year with Tay Ninh Province’s authorities, Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia decided to use funds from the state budget. 

VNS