People use Cát Lái ferry to travel between HCM City's Thủ Đức city and Đồng Nai Province's Nhơn Trạch District. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Diệp

HCM CITY — HCM City and neighbouring Đồng Nai Province have reached a final agreement to build a new bridge to replace the Cát Lái ferry in the 2025-30 period.

Trần Quang Lâm, director of the HCM City Department of Transportation, said Đồng Nai Province’s People’s Committee has sent a document to the city’s People’s Committee agreeing to invest in the Lái Bridge project.

The Cát Lái ferry carries an average of 50,000 passengers a day and 100,000 on peak days, and is often overloaded during the holidays.

The new bridge will be 4.5km long and have eight lanes, with total investment of VNĐ4.9 trillion ($211.6 million) in the form of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

Work is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.

Once completed, it will facilitate transport from HCM City not only to Nhơn Trạch District but also to the rest of Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province.

In the near future, when the under-construction Long Thành International Airport becomes operational (in Đồng Nai Province), Cát Lái Bridge will connect HCM City with the airport, helping ease congestion on the existing HCM City-Long Thành-Dầu Giây Expressway.

After 2030, the two localities plan to build two more bridges across the Đồng Nai River.

The Ministry of Transport is currently investing in building four-lane Nhơn Trạch Bridge connecting Nhơn Trạch District in Đồng Nai.

The completion time of Nhơn Trạch Bridge in early 2026 should meet some of the traffic connection demand between Nhơn Trạch and the City.

In addition, the route of Nguyễn Thị Định in and out of Cát Lái Port on the HCM City side is overloaded, with frequent traffic jams. Currently, the city is studying investment to build the Cát Lái – Phú Hữu inter-port road, connecting from Nguyễn Thị Định Street to the intersection of Ring Road No 3 of the City, which is expected to be completed and put into use in the 2026-30 period. — VNS