A 26km thruway project funded by a South Korean loan of over US$209 million has been approved by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for development in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap for five years.

PM Chinh on Monday gave a nod to the construction of the expressway spanning more than 26.1 kilometers in length to connect My An Town and Cao Lanh City in Dong Thap at a cost of over VND4,770 billion ($209.5 million), most of which will come from South Korea’s official development assistance (ODA) fund.

The government chief assigned the Ministry of Transport to govern the project, whose sponsor is the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of South Korea.

Of the total investment, around VND3,677 billion ($161.4 million) will come from the ODA loan and the rest will be covered by the Vietnamese government’s corresponding capital.

This loan has a term of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years.

The ODA funding will help cover costs of construction, equipment, engineering design and consultancy, and construction supervision, while Vietnam’s investment part will pay expenses on project surveys and planning, site clearance, project management, technical design verification, relevant VAT, and others.

The project will be developed for five years from the effective date of the loan agreement.

One end of the expressway in Cao Lanh will be connected with the Lo Te - Rach Soi route, which links Dong Thap with Kien Giang, one of the southernmost provinces of Vietnam.

The other end in My An will merge with Route N2, part of the Ho Chi Minh Road that connect Dong Thap to Long An Province, leading to the North-South Expressway.

The freeway will have four lanes with a total width of 17 meters for vehicles to run at an initial design speed of 80 kilometers per hour, which will increase to 100 kilometers per hour later.

The project will help improve the local road traffic network among the localities in the Mekong Delta in general and between Long An and Dong Thap in particular.

It is also aimed at promoting the effectiveness of the traffic infrastructure projects under operation or construction in the region.

Upon completion, the expressway will help shorten the time to travel from the southeastern provinces and the Central Highlands to the Mekong Delta.

The Ministry of Transport must coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the donor to negotiate the ODA agreement for the project and ensure the expressway will be completed on schedule, the PM said.

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