Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently underscored Vietnam’s determination to complete 600 kilometers of expressways in the Mekong Delta within this tenure of the government (2021-26) and another 600 kilometers in the next term.

To reach the target, PM Chinh required localities in the region to join forces with the government with a greater will, stronger efforts, and more drastic actions.

Over the past decades, the Mekong Delta has had more underdeveloped traffic infrastructure compared with other parts of the country.

In 2010, the delta had 40 first kilometers of expressways as the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Expressway connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang Province was opened to traffic.

Twelve years later, the second motorway, Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway, was inaugurated in 2022, raising the total kilometers of expressways in the region to over 90.

Over the past few years, a series of key traffic infrastructure projects, particularly expressways, have been planned.

According to the road network planning for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, the Mekong Delta is set to have six expressways with a total length of approximately 1,200 kilometers, each with four to six lanes.

Three vertical expressways would stretch 597 kilometers, including the eastern North-South Expressway, the western North-South Expressway, and the Ho Chi Minh City - Tien Giang - Ben Tre - Tra Vinh - Soc Trang Expressway.

There would also be three horizontal expressways spanning 591 kilometers in length, consisting of the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway, the Ha Tien - Rach Gia - Bac Lieu Expressway, and the Hong Ngu - Tra Vinh Expressway.

The expressway dream of over 20 million people in the Mekong Delta is coming true as many expressway projects are under construction.

Tran Truong Son, a local driver, said he was glad when the prime minister inspected the construction sites of traffic infrastructure projects in the region. Some bottlenecks would be surely removed as a result.

Authorities and residents in the delta are joining hands to develop expressways. Local residents are willing to hand over their land for expressway construction.

Nguyen Trung Hien, residing in Soc Trang Province, said his family handed over part of their farmland for the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway project.

“Once the expressway is opened to traffic in late 2027, I can travel on it to the Tran De Seaport or Chau Doc [a city in An Giang Province], and will not have to take a detour like I do now which takes time,” Hien said.

Meanwhile, authorities in the provinces and cities involved in the expressway construction projects have spent efforts on site clearance.

Ca Mau has completed over 99.9 percent of the site clearance work for a section of the eastern trans-Vietnam expressway project in the province, according to secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Tien Hai.

In Can Tho City, the cleared sites for the eastern North-South Expressway and the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway are almost complete.

Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Hieu said the city would work with power and telecom units to finalize the site clearance in August.

Regarding the supply of sand to the expressway projects, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh informed that contractors have been committed to ensuring sand for leveling for nearly 600 kilometers of expressways in the Mekong Delta.

According to Nguyen Van Sanh, former director of the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute, three important factors for the region's development are human resources, traffic infrastructure, and regional connectivity, with the second helping remove hindrances to the two others. 

Each province has its own economic development plans, but they cannot achieve their goals without adequate traffic infrastructure, Sanh added.

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