Commencing two construction packages of National Highway No 3

On June 08th, the Ministry of Transport and Thai Nguyen People's Committee have commenced two construction packages of National Highway No 3 in Song Cong town. Construction packages 1 and 2 of National Highway No 3, belonging to Traffic Safety Enhancing Project on National Highways in northern Vietnam, are built with a scale of 4 lanes and a length of over 12 km. Total investment capital is of nearly VND 400 billion from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loans of Japan and reciprocal capital . It is expected to be completed by 2013.

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Attending the groundbreaking ceremony, there are Mr. Ho Nghia Dung - Minister of Transportation; Mr.  Pham Xuan Duong - Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, a member of the Central Committee of Vietnamese Communist Party, Provincial Secretary as well as Chairman of Thai Nguyen People’s Committee; leaders of Japanese embassy; leaders of agencies under the Ministry of Transport - Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, representative of Hanoi People's Committee and representatives of consultant and supervisory contractors.

The package 1 and 2 - National Highway N^o3, the segment from km 51 +00  to km 63 +200 under Traffic Safety Enhancing Project on National Highways in northern Vietnam implemented by the Traffic Safety Project Management Unit (TSPMU) under the Traffic Safety Committee , invested by Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, consulted and supervised by OC-CONSIA Joint Venture. Hoang An Joint Stock Company (Package 1), Transport Construction and Investment Trading JSC N^o 1(TRICO) and Van Cuong Construction United Company (Package 2) are appointed contractors for implementation.

The construction of the project is aimed to enhance the traffic capacity for the overloaded National Highway N^o 3 and to increase economic, political and cultural exchanges between Ha Noi capital and Thai Nguyen in particular as well as among the mountainous provinces in Northern region in general, and to contribute to poverty eradication.

The two packages with a total length of over 12 km and the scale of major street and secondary urban and 04 traffic lanes begin at km 51 +00 (Van Duong bridge, Song Cong town) and end at km 63 +200 (bypass road in Thai Nguyen city) with estimated completion time from 18 to19 months, going through Pho Yen District, Song Cong town and the Thai Nguyen City. So far, the land clearance on the entire route has been basically completed and delivered to investors and contractors.

Addressing at the groundbreaking ceremony, Minister Ho Nghia Dung highly appreciated the efforts of the National Traffic Safety Committee, Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, the advisory agencies, designers, and Thai Nguyen People’s Committee who have attempted to complete all important tasks so that the groundbreaking ceremony took place on schedule. The Minister asked the investors, contractors, Thai Nguyen Thai Nguyen People’s Committee and the localities where the National Highway runs through to actively collaborate and resolve promptly problems arising during the project construction to ensure construction projects on schedule with high quality. In particular, Thai Nguyen province must carry out the propaganda work well and mobilise people in implementing land clearance effectively to create favourable conditions for investors and contractors to have clean land for the construction.