Mountainous provinces in the north are still suffering from inadequateroading, despite significant financial investment in recent years.
VietnamBridge and Road Science and Technology Association statistics showground transportation in northern mountainous provinces covers an areaof 59,400km, including nearly 49,200km of rural roads.
In recentyears, at least 3,700 out of 4,300km of highway roads have been upgradedand revamped and hundreds of villages have been connected to towns.
Bythe end of last year, Yen Bai had invested more than 2.8trillion VND(134.4 million USD) for rural transportation, improving 143km of highwayroads, building and upgrading 148km at the provincial level and addingmore than 1,500km to villages, wards and hamlets.
Lao Caiprovince had invested more than 3.3 trillion VNDVND(158.4 million USD).Now 101 villages in the provinces have accessible roads to towns.
Nevertheless,most roads in these provinces, especially those that serve highlandvillages, are in poor conditions and the percentage of villages withconcrete roads is low, while the lack of funding for maintenance has ledto quick degradation.
Nguyen The Ha, deputy chairman of Ba Vidistrict People's Committee in Ha Noi, said most villages in the areascould not afford the funds required for maintaining and upgrading theirroads.
"Only people who travel on those deteriorating roads withtheir countless numbers of pot-holes can understand the suffering oflocal residents on a daily basis," Ha said.
Many provinces hadfailed to develop a comprehensive zoning plan for rural transportationor to manage funds effectively, or they lacked staff at a local level tomanage the maintenance. Also, concrete roads were difficult to build ina mountainous terrain.
In May, the Government approved a list ofrural transport projects – with 80 million USD borrowing from the AsianDevelopment Bank – for six provinces: Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Ha Giang,Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai and Lao Cai. The first phase, valued at 109.6million USD, would upgrade more than 300km of roads over the next fiveyears.
The Ministry of Transport recently approved the nationalstrategic plan to develop Vietnam's rural transportation until 2020,with vision until 2030. Under the plan, by 2015, all villagesnation-wide will have a road that lead to their centres, at least 70percent of these roads will be of concrete, and all makeshift bridgeswill be eliminated.
The plan also suggest allocating a fund formaintaining all district roads and at least half of the village roads.Funding will be drawn from sources such as government bonds, Governmentbudget, foreign investment and contributions from the community. Expertsagree that developing rural transportation is critical for thesocio-economic development and poverty reduction in these provinces./.
VietnamBridge and Road Science and Technology Association statistics showground transportation in northern mountainous provinces covers an areaof 59,400km, including nearly 49,200km of rural roads.
In recentyears, at least 3,700 out of 4,300km of highway roads have been upgradedand revamped and hundreds of villages have been connected to towns.
Bythe end of last year, Yen Bai had invested more than 2.8trillion VND(134.4 million USD) for rural transportation, improving 143km of highwayroads, building and upgrading 148km at the provincial level and addingmore than 1,500km to villages, wards and hamlets.
Lao Caiprovince had invested more than 3.3 trillion VNDVND(158.4 million USD).Now 101 villages in the provinces have accessible roads to towns.
Nevertheless,most roads in these provinces, especially those that serve highlandvillages, are in poor conditions and the percentage of villages withconcrete roads is low, while the lack of funding for maintenance has ledto quick degradation.
Nguyen The Ha, deputy chairman of Ba Vidistrict People's Committee in Ha Noi, said most villages in the areascould not afford the funds required for maintaining and upgrading theirroads.
"Only people who travel on those deteriorating roads withtheir countless numbers of pot-holes can understand the suffering oflocal residents on a daily basis," Ha said.
Many provinces hadfailed to develop a comprehensive zoning plan for rural transportationor to manage funds effectively, or they lacked staff at a local level tomanage the maintenance. Also, concrete roads were difficult to build ina mountainous terrain.
In May, the Government approved a list ofrural transport projects – with 80 million USD borrowing from the AsianDevelopment Bank – for six provinces: Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Ha Giang,Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai and Lao Cai. The first phase, valued at 109.6million USD, would upgrade more than 300km of roads over the next fiveyears.
The Ministry of Transport recently approved the nationalstrategic plan to develop Vietnam's rural transportation until 2020,with vision until 2030. Under the plan, by 2015, all villagesnation-wide will have a road that lead to their centres, at least 70percent of these roads will be of concrete, and all makeshift bridgeswill be eliminated.
The plan also suggest allocating a fund formaintaining all district roads and at least half of the village roads.Funding will be drawn from sources such as government bonds, Governmentbudget, foreign investment and contributions from the community. Expertsagree that developing rural transportation is critical for thesocio-economic development and poverty reduction in these provinces./.
