Vietnam to Start Construction of $1.6B ADB-funded Expressway in Dec

Vietnam will start construction of the Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressway, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in December, the project management unit said. The 58-kilometer Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressway will link Ho Chi Minh City with Trung Luong expressway in Long An province and Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway in Dong Nai province. The $1.6 billion project, among the seven expressways in HCM City’s master transport plan by 2020, will be developed in two phases. It is going to have eight lanes and is slated for completion in 2017. Earlier, Vietnam Expressway Cooperation (VEC) and ADB signed a loan agreement worth $636 million for the project. (Thoi Bao Kinh Doanh – Business Times Oct 14 p5, Vietnam News Oct 14 p4)