A slew of infrastructure works have begun or been speeded up across the country after Tet (the Lunar New Year) holiday.

HCM City’s first metro line linking Ben Thanh Market in District 1 with Suoi Tien Park in District 9. 

Besides its metro lines, Ho Chi Minh City has also stepped up the pace of work at many other major infrastructure projects, including Beltway No 3, which is expected to reduce traffic congestion in the city by allowing vehicles to bypass it.

In early January, the Ministry of Transport had told the city to begin sub-project No 1 of the Beltway No 3 Project ahead of schedule.

The beltway will also shorten the distance between the city and the new urban area of Nhon Trach in Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces.

In the first stage, the 97.7km beltway will have four lanes for heavy vehicles and two for others, according to the Cuu Long Corporation for Investment, Development and Project Management of Infrastructure, the project management unit.

It will allow traffic to travel at the speed of up to 100km per hour.

A 16.7km section from Binh Chuan to Tan Van in Binh Duong province built under the PPP (Public – Private Partnership) mode has already opened to traffic.

Work on the 34.3km second section through Dong Nai province and HCM City will be done in two stages and begin in late 2018 and early 2019.

Thailand’s Siam Cement Group plans to begin construction of Long Son Petrochemical complex in Vung Tau city on February 23.

The 3.4 billion USD petrochemical plant is expected to produce 1.6 million tonnes of olefin annually.

The 460ha complex in the Long Son Industrial Park will have 398ha for plants and 66ha for a port, warehouse and power plants.

The construction is expected to take more than four years.

Also in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, the Zinc Oxide Corporation Vietnam JSC began construction of an electric arc furnace dust recycling plant in the Phu My Industrial Park on January 23.

In the central province of Thanh Hoa, construction of the Nghi Son No 2 thermal power plant at an estimated cost of $2.74 billion will begin in the Nghi Son IP in Nghi Son district in the first quarter, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

The 1,200MW plant will be built by a Japanese consortium comprising Marubeni and Kepco.-VNA