Authorities in HCM City and Tây Ninh Province on Saturday signed a cooperation agreement on the implementation of the HCM City-Mộc Bài Expressway project. — VNS Photo Ngọc Diệp

HCM CITY — A cooperation agreement between HCM City and Tây Ninh Province on the implementation of HCM City-Mộc Bài Expressway project was signed on Saturday in HCM City.

Under the agreement, the HCM City People’s Committee and Tây Ninh Province People’s Committee will work together to speed up the progress of the project.

Authorised agencies in HCM City and Tây Ninh Province will accelerate capital allocation, and call for investment, land compensation, assistance and resettlement agreements. 

"Currently, there is only National Road 22 that directly links Tây Ninh with HCM City but it is heavily overloaded while trade between the two localities is growing," deputy chairman of HCM City People's Committee Võ Văn Hoan said, adding that the expressway will certainly help ease the burden on the National Road 22 and facilitate economic growth in the southern region.

The 53.5km-long expressway will link Ring Road No 3 in HCM City’s Hóc Môn District with Mộc Bài, an international border gate between Việt Nam and Cambodia in Tây Ninh Province.

The expressway project will be divided into two investment phases under Public-Private Partnership and Build-Operate-Transfer models.

The first stage is expected to cost VNĐ10.7 trillion (US$460.7 million).

Its construction is expected to be completed by 2025 with at least four lanes, and expanded to six or eight lanes by 2045.

The expressway is expected to ease traffic congestion and create favourable conditions for industrial parks and export processing zones in Tây Ninh Province, especially the Mộc Bài Border Gate Economic Zone.

Dương Văn Thắng, deputy chairman of Tây Ninh People's Committee, said the provincial authorities is committed to making sure that the project gets done on schedule, especially with regards to ground clearance and compensation for the affected local residents.

HCM City and Tây Ninh Province are among eight provinces and cities in the southern key economic zone. — VNS