The distance between central Hanoi and Noi Bai International Airport will be halved to 15 kilometers when a newly built bridge and road leading to the airport is opened to traffic later this week.

Nhat Tan Bridge will be opened to traffi c later this week.

The Ministry of Transport said in a statement last week that the Nhat Tan Bridge and the road to the airport will be put into use on January 4 as major components of the 12-kilometer road are complete and work on auxiliary facilities will be ready in the coming days.

Construction of the final components of the Nhat Tan Bridge will be completed on Wednesday. This cable-stayed bridge costs more than VND13.62 trillion and stretches three kilometers across the Red River.

The ministry said the VND6.742-trillion road leading to Noi Bai will help halve the distance between the central area of the capital city and the airport and reduce traffic on Bac Thang Long Highway, which currently leads to the airport.

The second terminal of Noi Bai airport, also known as T2, was put into service last week. The new terminal was designed to handle 10-15 million passengers a year and built at a cost of nearly US$900 million to reduce overloads at the second largest international airport in Vietnam after Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong said the bridge and road were key projects of the country and funded by official development assistance (ODA) loans of Japan and reciprocal capital of the Vietnamese Government.