Hanoi (VNA) - The Chairman of the People’s Committee of the northern province of Bac Giang has approved a project to build Dong Viet Bridge and a road leading to it in Yen Dung district, at a total investment of nearly 1.5 trillion VND (65.67 million USD).

The budget will be sourced from the provincial budget and Government bond. 

The bridge spans about 8.6 km and is projected to pass through the Duc Giang and Dong Phuc industrial parks, and urban and service areas.

It will connect with Hung Dao commune of the neighbouring Hai Duong province’s Chi Linh city. A road linking Dong Viet bridge with National Road 37 in the city will be built with investment of the People’s Committee of Hai Duong.

The road leading to the bridge measures 7.86 km in length and 22.5 m in width, with a design speed of 100 km/h. Meanwhile, the bridge will be 731.2 m in length and 22.5 m in width. 

The construction is expected to be completed by 2025.

Upon its completion, the bridge is hoped to create an impulse for socio-economic development in the south-eastern region of Bac Giang and connect with Hai Duong province; facilitate domestic travel; and bolster trade and tourism development.

Dong Viet Bridge will also help attract investors to industrial parks and zones in Yen Dung and Viet Yen districts, contributing to completing the province’s transport infrastructure in line with its planning to 2030, with a vision to 2050.

Data in 2021 showed that Bac Giang had raised a total of over 17.8 trillion VND in investment for local transport infrastructure development since 2016.

The capital has been injected into a number of key projects, notably a section of Hanoi’s Belt Road No.4 crossing Bac Giang, worth 1.23 trillion VND; upgrade of Provincial Road 295 crossing Voi – Ben Tuan and Ngoc Chau – Thang township, 245 billion VND; and a 5-km road connecting Provincial Road 293 and My An Port in Luc Nam, 115 billion VND.

Over the last five years, the province has developed 11 transport projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, with a total investment of more than 7.5 trillion VND. They include two Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects managed by the Ministry of Transport and eight Build-Transfer (BT) by the province.  A majority of the funding, 4.2 trillion VND, has been spent on developing Bac Giang – Lang Son Expressway under a BOT contract.

In addition to private funding, Bac Giang has used Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans for transport infrastructure projects. The largest among the ODA-funded projects were the 272-billion-VND Dong Bac Belt Road and Tran Quang Khai Bridge project in Bac Giang city financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the 135-billion-VND Local Bridge Construction and Road Asset Management (LRAMP)’s local bridge component funded by the World Bank (WB).

The province has also spent over 2.18 trillion VND from its budget and close to 1.75 trillion VND from private funding to asphalt more than 4,210 km of roads, mostly in rural areas.

Thanks to such efforts, Bac Giang is now home to about 153km of expressways which are more than 8m in width, accounting for over 46.4 percent of the total.

It has also concreted over 97.3 percent of district-level, 98.1 percent of commune-level and 92.3 percent of village roads.

In the coming time, Bac Giang plans to attract private investors in transport services, such as inland ports, parking, bus stations, and rest stops. The province will also jointly develop inter-provincial roads with neighbouring localities and, by 2025, cooperate with the Ministry of Transport and BOT investors to expand Xuong Giang and Nhu Nguyen bridges on the Hanoi – Bac Giang Expressway./.