The Ministry of Transport has passed a plan to develop 36 rest stops on the underway North-South Expressway stretching from Lang Son Province in northern Vietnam to Ca Mau Province, the southern tip of the country, with an average distance of 59 kilometers between two stops.

Of the 36 rest stops, seven have been put into operation; four are under construction; and the remaining have yet to be developed.

The minister of transport assigned project management boards under the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Expressway Corporation to make a list of the rest stops and choose investors.

The rest stops should be built in line with the law and in a public, transparent, and effective manner to meet the demand for the synchronous operation of sections of the Eastern North-South Expressway, the minister required.

The Ministry of Transport also asked consulting units to coordinate with the authorities of the localities to survey planned locations for the rest stops.

Such localities will choose investors for the rest stops on expressways that are being built under their management.

As the North-South Expressway is an arterial route of the country, new rest stops will have an area of five hectares on each side of the road, except for those near large cities which will cover three hectares on each side.

The area of existing rest stops will stay unchanged.

The Ministry of Transport will select investors for all new rest stops through public tenders.

It will publicize the list of rest stops on expressway sections which have been completed or neared completion this month.

The selection of investors for these rest stop projects will take three to five months, while contractors will later complete procedures and construct the rest stops within nine to 12 months.

The North-South Expressway project was scheduled for execution in two phases, with phase one lasting from 2017 to 2020 and phase two from 2021 to 2025. The respective length of each phase is 654 and 729 kilometers.

The lawmaking National Assembly approved phase one in 2017 and phase two in November of last year.

The first phase of the project, which includes 11 subprojects, carried a price tag of VND102.5 trillion (US$4.3 billion).

Meanwhile, the estimated cost for the second phase totals VND147 trillion ($6.2 billion).

Vietnam expects to finish the second phase in 2025 and put it into operation in 2026.

At present, many sections of the expressway constructed in 2017-20 have been opened to traffic but have no rest stops, such as Phan Thiet – Dau Giay, Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet, Mai Son – National Highway 45, and Nha Trang – Cam Lam, causing difficulties for drivers and commuters, news site VnExpress reported.

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