An agreement signed between the concerned authorised agencies in HCM City will seek to complete site clearance of the Ring Road No. 3’s section in the city by the end of 2023. — VNA/VNS Photo Tiến Lực

HCM CITY — HCM City authorities on Sunday agreed to complete site clearance for a 47km section of Ring Road No.3 passing through the city by the end of next year.

The city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the people’s committees of Thủ Đức City and the districts of Hóc Môn, Bình Chánh and Củ Chi signed the agreement to speed up land acquisition, compensation and resettlement support.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, chairman of the municipal People's Committee Phan Văn Mãi asked the relevant agencies to hand over at least 70 percent of the construction site to the investor by June 2023 and said that the site clearance work must be completed by the end of 2023.

The 76km ring road will run through the city and the provinces of Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and Long An. A total of 1,476 households living on 640ha need to be relocated.

Land acquisition and clearance of the section of the ring road in the city is estimated to cost more than VNĐ25.6 trillion ($1.09 billion).

The city’s People’s Committee has approved the acquisition of 408 hectares of land and relocation of 740 households to make way for the construction of the section.

Lương Minh Phúc, director of the city's Management Board for Traffic Works Construction and Investment, said 95 per cent of the land clearance of the section was completed.

Some 1802 out of 1901 clearance poles have been installed in the city so far. The work is expected to finish on October 20.

Land handover has also been completed at nine out of 13 wards and communes, except for Phạm Văn Hai and Lê Minh Xuân communes in Bình Chánh District, and Long Trường and Long Bình wards in Thủ Đức City.

In particular, installing clearance poles in the area at the intersection between Ring Road No.3 and HCM City-Mộc Bài Expressway is expected to be completed before the end of October.

The ring road is a key national project and one of the city’s urgent traffic projects for 2021-25, while being expected to improve transport infrastructure and inter-regional connectivity and create a new driving force for socio-economic development in the southern economic region.

It is expected to help ease congestion in the city and transport goods from Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces to the Nhơn Trạch Industrial Zone in Đồng Nai Province and Cái Mép-Thị Vải Port in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province.

The four-lane road will be built in four phases.

Its construction has been delayed repeatedly after the project was approved by the Government more than 10 years ago.

So far, only the Tân Vạn-Bình Chuẩn section in Bình Dương Province has been completed and opened to traffic.

Construction of other sections has been delayed due to a lack of funds and difficulties in land clearance. — VNS