Transport Minister Nguyen Van The has demanded that the final deadline extension of the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway project is no later than 2 September to mark the 73^rd National Day.

Transport Minister Nguyen Van The during his recent inspection visit to the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway project site (2nd, right)

During his recent meeting with the leaders of Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, Minister The underscored that if Viet Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC), the project’s developer, fails to meet the final completion deadline, it will be directly responsible to the Ministry.

The main reason for the work being behind schedule was that the construction units faced some difficulties arising during the work, including the building of frontage roads, the compensation work for affected families whose houses were partly cracked by for the construction work.

In Da Nang alone, 31 families are now in desperate need of compensation relating to the construction of a road connecting the expressway with National Highway 14B.

The deployment of the large-scale project, the first of its kind in the central region, is part of the country’s expressway network development plans by 2020, with a vision towards 2030.
Work started on the 139.52km, 6-lane route in May 2013 at a total estimated cost of over 1.6 billion USD.

Of this, 798.5 million USD in loans is offered by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), whilst 590.3 million USD is lent by the World Bank (WB), and the remainder come from the national budget.

The expressway runs through Da Nang, and Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces.

As part of the expressway project, the 65km-long section between Da Nang’s Tuy Loan Village and Quang Nam Province’s Tam Ky City was opened to traffic in August 2017, and it has proved highly effective.

Meanwhile, the remaining section which links Tam Ky City with Quang Ngai Province now nearing completion.