Construction on East-West Corridor Begins Late Jan

Construction on East-West Corridor Begins Late Jan

Ho Chi Minh City officially began construction of the East-West corridor on January 31 after eight years of preparation and site clearance.

Total investment for the 22-km East-West Highway is put at around VND9.86 trillion (US$628 million). Sixty five percent of the capital will come from the Japanese government’s official development assistance loans, provided through the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (VND6,394 billion). The remaining funds (VND3,470 billion) come from State budgets, and these monies are mainly for site clearance and resettlement of affected households.

The corridor is the biggest traffic infrastructure project in the city stretching the areas of Districts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, Tan Binh and Binh Chanh.

The work includes 24 bridges of all kinds, especially Thu Thiem Tunnel, Southeast Asia’s longest tunnel under a river, which was started construction on January 29 and expects for the completion in 2007.

The 8-lane tunnel is designed to be 1,490 meters long with a 371-meter-long section running under the Saigon River. It is constructed with advanced technologies to link District 1 in the city downtown and District 2 in the Thu Thiem Peninsula.

Obayashi Corporation from Japan has won the tender to build the tunnel and a 5.6km road linking the eastern section of the tunnel in District 2 with Hanoi Highway in Thu Duc district at total a cost of VND2.2 trillion (US$140 million).

Obayashi will collaborate with PS Mitsubishi, another Japanese firm, on the second contract, building a western road and expanding 13 kilometers of the city’s canal road which will lead to the tunnel gate at a cost of VND1.5 trillion (US$95.5 million).

When completed, the corridor is expected to drastically reduce traffic congestion in the busiest city in Vietnam and meet the demand for circulating goods from the city’s ports to its eastern and southwestern regions.

To build this work, Ho Chi Minh City had to move 6,754 households and 368 offices, the record number of site clearance in the city.
(Liberated Saigon)