Speaking at the event, the Deputy PM emphasised that the highway is of significance because it links provinces in the area of the East-West Economic Corridor and contributes to enhancing connectivity in the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia economic triangle area.
Additionally, the road helps to ensure transport as well as the delivery of aid during the rainy season, in the context that the central region is one of the areas most vulnerable to flooding in the country.
Phuc also took this occasion to thank the World Bank and the Japanese government for their financial assistance for infrastructure development in Vietnam.
Scheduled to be completed by 2017, the 139.52 km highway is to have four lanes for traffic and two emergency lanes. Along the route there will be 102 bridges with a total length of 8,966m, and a 540-m tunnel.
The project has a total investment of nearly US$1.5 billion, of which US$673 million is sourced by Japan’s Official Development Assistance, and US$631 million comes from the World Bank and the rest by the Vietnamese government.
