The Ministry of Transport inaugurated the second terminal of the Noi Bai International Airport, Nhat Tan Bridge and the Vo Nguyen Giap Street connecting the bridge and the airport in a ceremony held in Hanoi on Sunday.

The three national key projects were built with the Japanese Government’s official development assistance (ODA) loans and the Vietnamese Government’s counterpart capital. Nhat Tan Bridge will help deal with traffic jam on the Thang Long-Noi Bai route and reduce travelling costs from the centre of Hanoi to adjacent provinces, he added.

The construction of the 8.93 km Nhat Tan Bridge, the seventh and the longest bridge spanning the Hong (Red) River, began in March 2009 with a total investment of VND13.6 trillion (US$639.2 million).

Built by Japan’s cutting-edge technologies, the bridge, which is  33.2 meters wide for six lanes of traffic and two emergency halting lanes, is one of a very small number of bridges having the largest number of suspension spans in the world. The travel time by car from the bridge to the Noi Bai Airport is only 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the 12.1 km-long Vo Nguyen Giap Street has been built with a total cost of more than VND6.7 billion to link the bridge to the airport. The road, which is named after General Vo Nguyen Giap, is  expected to serve the Noi Bai International Airport ’s development strategy and boost the socio-economic development of Hanoi ’s suburban districts of Dong Anh and Soc Son. Meanwhile, the four-storey terminal (Terminal T2) covering an area of around 139,216  m2 has been constructed with a total cost of nearly US$1 billion. The Terminal T2 is capable of serving 10 million passengers in the 2015-2020 period and 15 million passengers in the ten years later.  Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai commented that these major projects manifested the sound traditional friendship between Vietnam and Japan.

He also thanked the Japanese Government and people for their support and collaboration, saying that he hopes both sides will further step up cooperation activities to enhance the bilateral strategic partnership. The deputy PM said Nhat Tan Bridge will help ease traffic congestion on the Thang Long-Noi Bai route and cut down travel costs from central Hanoi to adjacent provinces. Meanwhile, the Vo Ngueyn Giap Street, along with other belt-roads, will contribute to creating a modern transport system in the capital city, he added.

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