The Vietnamese government has given the go-ahead to a project to enlarge a major route playing an important part in the transport of goods from provinces and cities in southern Vietnam to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, local newswire VnExpress reported Monday.

National Highway 22, which connects the northwestern outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City with Tay Ninh, a province to its northwest, and ultimately Cambodia is on its way to a major upgrade.

The highway, covering 58 kilometers, is an arterial route serving a crucial role in the development of the southern key economic region as well as the flow of goods from southern Vietnamese localities to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian nations through the Moc Bai international border gate in Tay Ninh.

One of southern Vietnam’s busiest routes, the road has suffered heavy traffic congestion in recent years, especially at rush hour, owing largely to insufficient road space, the newswire quoted the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City as saying.

The approaching completion of Beltway 3 and Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai Highway, combined with the city’s construction of its northwestern urban area and Beltway 2, only serves to worsen the stress on National Highway 22.

The city’s urgent call for an expansion of the route was thus answered by the nation’s central government, which recently gave the green light for the People’s Committee to seek investors and launch the upgrade project in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) form.

BOT is a project-financing framework in which the developer receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct and operate a facility for a certain period, during which it has to raise the finances for, and is entitled to retain all revenues generated by, the project.

The facility will be then transferred to the public administration at the end of the concession agreement.

The project is to be executed under close coordination among the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Transport, the People’s Committee of Tay Ninh, and other relevant bodies, as directed by central authorities.

A single contractor is to be in charge of the whole project so as to avoid the placement of two toll stations within the 58-kilometer length, as Vietnam’s laws only allow a minimum distance of 70 kilometers between such facilities.