The Ministry of Transport started work on a number of key infrastructure projects in the Mekong Delta over the weekend, which will help spur trade and economic activities in the delta.

According to the ministry, the first phase of Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway in Tien Giang Province is being implemented under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) format and has a total length of more than 51 kilometers, plus 4.5 kilometers of approach road.

Once the first phase is complete in the next four years, the expressway section will have two lanes for vehicles to move at 100 kilometers per hour. The section will start at Than Cuu Nghia T-Junction at the Chau Thanh District end of HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway, and end at the crossroad with National Highway 30.

The Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway project requires more than VND14.6 trillion (US$672.8 million) and will be ready by the end of 2018. The investor will be permitted to collect tolls for 20 years starting from January 1, 2019.

The ministry had assigned Cuu Long Corporation for Investment Development and Project Management of Infrastructure (Cuu Long CIPM) to continue seeking funds for the next phase to expand the expressway to four lanes with construction planned to start in late 2017.

Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway will help improve the traffic system between Can Tho City and HCMC and thus facilitate transportation between the two cities. The road will shorten traveling time between HCMC and the Mekong Delta, as well as ease traffic congestion on National Highway 1A.

Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway, originally designed to have four lanes, formerly involved Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam’s Expressway Development Company (BEDC) and cost an estimated VND28 trillion. The company began work on the project in November 2009 but decided to return the project to the ministry two years later due to financial distress. Cuu Long CIPM was then picked to replace it.

The transport ministry on Saturday kicked off the VND1.41-trillion project to expand the National Highway 1A section and build a bypass for Soc Trang City in the province of the same name.

The BOT project comprises 8.54 kilometers of the National Highway 1A section and 7.68 kilometers of the bypass, and will be completed in 2016. The investor will start collecting tolls from July next year.

Also on the same day, the ministry opened to traffic Nam Can, Cai Tat, Sau Nan and Trai Luoi bridges in the Mekong Delta, and the 8.1-kilometer-long section from Nam Can Town to the bridge of the same name in Ca Mau Province as part of the Ho Chi Minh Road project.

The 817-meter-long Nam Can Bridge costs VND649 billion while the length of Cai Tat, Sau Nan and Trai Luoi bridges is 440, 175 and 240 meters respectively. These bridges have the same width of 12 meters.