Over the past 25 years, many major traffic works have become symbols, bearing the mark of the dynamic and creative development of Da Nang – one of the largest Vietnamese cities, hereby bringing up an impressive urban facelift to the city and considerably making it stand stronger on its feet during the journey of industrialisation and modernisation.

The development of transport infrastructure has created leverage for the city's socio-economic development. Here is a view pf Hue T-junction overpass - one of the city's modern designed traffic works. Photo: THANH LAN

Transport infrastructure makes outstanding development strides

Throughout the development process, Da Nang has decided to promote the development of transport infrastructure as a breakthrough. Public transport networks within Da Nang have developed strongly in both quality and quantity, meeting the growing travel demand of locals and tourists.

Before 1997 when Da Nang was separated from the former Quang Nam - Da Nang province to become a centrally-governed city, its urban technical infrastructure had been still very modest with only two bridges connecting the eastern and western banks of the iconic Han River, namely Nguyen Van Troi and Tran Thi Ly bridges.

Soon after, Da Nang focused on upgrading and expanding many major streets ands bridges in parallel with building many new ones. A series of key traffic works took the shape in a prompt fashion.

Over 2015 - 2020 period, the volume of transported freight and passengers climbed by 8.3% and 6.3% year-on-year, respectively. The total revenue generated from all transport services recorded an annual hike of 6.6%. Likewise, the total amount of cargo through local ports stood at 43.1 million tonnes, up 9.3% on a yearly basis.

For the being, Da Nang boasts around 2,440 streets with a combined total length of 1,500 km, an increase of 265.59 km compared to early 2015, 75 bridges citywide, including 10 spanning the Han and Cam Le rivers, and 7 inland waterway routes stretching a sum of 63.2km.

A series of large-scale and modern traffic works have been developed and put into operation such as the bridges of Han River, Rong (Dragon), Thuan Phuoc, Tran Thi Ly and Tien Son, along with large streets of Le Duan, Nguyen Tat Thanh, Hoang Sa - Vo Nguyen Giap - Truong Sa, Bach Dang, Pham Van Dong, Tran Hung Dao, Dien Bien Phu, Nguyen Van Linh, Ham Nghi and Nguyen Huu Tho.

These above-mentioned works have contributed to speeding up the process of embellishment and urbanisation, and in a short time, Da Nang has almost completely changed its appearance with a more attractive look with improved transport infrastructure. Thanks to this, the inner-city traffic axes have been developed, leading to the formation of new urban areas, thereby developing Da Nang into a first-grade city.

Besides, a number of modern traffic works such as highways, seaports, international airports and bridges have been developed and many of them meet regional and international standards, creating a new dynamic look for Da Nang.

Notable amongst them are the intersection of Hue T-junction, the Da Nang - Quang Ngai Expressway, the La Son - Tuy Loan section as part of Ho Chi Minh route, the southern ring road running through the Hoa Phuoc and Hoa Khuong communes, the extended Nguyen Tat Thanh route, the expansion of the Hai Van Tunnel, a bridge across over Co Co River, the upgrade of the international passenger terminal at the city’s airport and Phase 2 of Tien Sa port.

Based on aforementioned encouraging and facts and figures, there is no denying that Da Nang itself made a great leap in terms of transport infrastructure.

Big projects ahead for sake of more breakthroughs

According to Deputy Director in charge of the municipal Department of Transport Bui Hong Trung, in the coming time, Da Nang will continue to accelerate the construction progress of many key projects.

Included are the western ring road, the Tuyen Son - Tuy Loan riverside route, western ring road No. 2, the large-scale Da Nang transport infrastructure improvement project using loans from OFID (the OPEC Fund for International Development), the shared infrastructure construction at Phase 1 of the much-awaited Lien Chieu mega-port, the relocation of the Da nang railway station and urban redevelopment and a traffic infrastructure project at western end of the Tran Thi Ly Bridge.

It can be said that, over the past 25 years, Da Nang's transport infrastructure has developed synchronously in the direction of civilisation and modernity, making a breakthrough, creating a change in stature, economic size and appearance of the city.

Dr. Ho Duy Diem, the former head of the Da Nang planning board, said that if Da Nang wants to develop, it should expand itself to the west. Therefore, it is necessary to build traffic axes connecting east – west with ring roads at the earliest.

The development of a tunnel connecting the city’s International Airport with its road network in the western part, a tunnel stretching under the Han River in order to ease traffic congestion, and a bridge connecting Bui Ta Han Street in Ngu Hanh Son District and the 29 March Street in Hoa Xuan Eco-Urban Area in Cam Le District must be at the heart of Da Nang's strategic planning and development plans.

According to Mr. Bui Hong Trung, transport infrastructure is the pride of the Da Nang people. Traffic infrastructure with the task of “pioneering and paving the way” has successfully completed its role as a “lever” to change the city's appearance, promote the development of urban areas in the direction of civilisation and modernity and speed up the process of urbanisation in rural areas in a sustainable way.

The completion of the city's transport infrastructure has served as an important driving force in the process of city economic restructuring.

Along with that, the formation of important transport hubs for domestic and international transport and transit activities has contributed to affirming Da Nang’s stature as the nucleus of the key economic zone of the Central Viet Nam- Central Highlands regions.

Reporting by THANH LAN – Translating by A. THU