The 13th Party Congress called for comprehensive infrastructure development as one of three strategic breakthroughs. Therefore, strength was gathered to develop national key transport projects. It is expected that Vietnam will have 5,000 kilometers of highways by 2030, and the North-South Expressway's eastern part will be completed by 2025.  

The government has decided that 3,000 kilometers of highways must be completed by 2025.

The government’s leaders have taken many inspection tours to localities, examined many key works, and requested contractors to work on holidays and speed up project implementation. Thanks to this, from 2021 to mid-2023 alone, 600 kilometers of highways were built.

New road sections shorten distances

Congratulating his daughter for passing the entrance exam to a high school for the gifted, Hai and his family decided to take a tour to Hue City with their own car. 

The time Hai departed from Hanoi was the day when the last 19 kilometers of the Dien Chau – Bai Vot highway opened for use. It took them only four hours to travel from Hanoi to Duc Tho in HaT inh.

“We left at 5 am and we arrived in Duc Tho at 9 am. We arrived in Ha  Tinh City to have lunch there and then continued traveling. At 1pm, we arrived in Hue City.

“If we had driven the car with no break, the Hanoi-Hue journey would have taken us 8 hours. It was convenient if noting that we did not think of going to Hue City by car two years ago. This is the great value of highways,” he said.

On June 29, at Hung Duc Bridge in Duc Tho district in Ha Tinh province, the Ministry of Transport organized a ceremony on opening the last 19 kilometers of highway on the Dien Chau – Bai Vot route to traffic. 

The entire route of Dien Chau – Bai Vot has a total length of 49 kilometers. It shortens the time of traveling from Hanoi to Ha Tinh to four hours instead of six hours.

The 19 kilometer section was the last piece of all the 11 component projects belonging to the project on road sections on the North-South Expressway's eastern part in 2017-2020 with total length of 653 kilometers.

Prior to that, on April 26, after 28 months of execution, the Cam Lam – Vinh Hao highway route was completed and opened for traffic. This is the last section of the route that links HCMC and Nha Trang, together with four sections completed before, including HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay; Dau Giay – Phan Thiet; Phan Thiet – Vinh Hao; and Cam Lam – Nha Trang.

The highway helped shorten the time of travel from HCM City to NhaT rang to 4-5 hours, just half of the time needed traveling on Highway No1.

2,020 kilometers of highways 

Analysts estimated that just within three years, the total length of highways completed was equal to half of the total length of highways implemented 10 years ago.

The Ministry of Transport has set a goal of putting at least 130 kilometers of highways into operation in 2024. 

By 2025, the country will complete 12 component projects of the North-South Expressway for 2021-2025, and other sections for the entire route from Lang Son in the north to Ca Mau in the south.

As of June 2024, the country had put into operation an additional 128 kilometers of highways (79 kilometers on Cam Lam – Vinh Hao, and 49 kilometers on Dien Chau – Bai Vot).

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan said in 2017-2020 the ministry executed 11 component highway projects with a total length of 654 kilometers. 

In 2021-2025, the ministry is executing 12 component projects with a total length of 729 kilometers of the North-South Expressway's eastern part.

“So, we have fulfilled the task assigned to us in the 14th National Assembly’s Resolution 52 to build 654 kilometers of the North-South Expressway."

He said that contractors are striving to complete and open to traffic about 3,000 kilometers by 2025 as per the Prime Minister’s request.

Vu Diep