On Sep. 15, 2021, Ministry of Transport has announced the Decision no. 1454/QD-TTg dated Sep. 01, 2021 by Prime Minister approving the Highway Network Planning in 2021-2030 period, vision to 2050. The decision was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Attending the conference are MOT Vice Minister Le Dinh Tho; General Director of Vietnam Directorate of Roads (VDR) Nguyen Van Huyen; leaders of departments, divisions under MOT, VDR; leaders of Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, Ministry of Information and Communication, and Ministry of National Defence; representatives for leaders of 63 provinces and central cities; representatives of Transport Engineering Design, Inc. (TEDI) the leading firm of the consultant joint-venture for the planning.
Vice Minister Le Dinh Tho giving the opening speech of the conference
This is the first sectoral master plan approved according to the Planning Law no. 21/2017/QH14, which is appreciated for is scope, extent and influence among 37 national sectoral master plans of Vietnam.
Highway Network Development Planning is one of transport master plans (highway, inland waterways; aerodrome, airports; sea ports; railway). This is the first time the transport sectoral master plans are implemented simultaneously, with clear assignment of the roles based on advantages of each mode on each main transport corridor, ensuring systematization and harmonized connection between the sectors.
This highway network planning determines highway is the flexible, effective mode for short and medium distances (below 300 km), it assist to collect, clear goods, passengers for other transport modes.
According to the planning, the highway network must ensure connection between the national highway system and local road system, between dynamic areas and difficult areas; connecting to transport and international gateways, especially efficient connection to transport hubs, infrastructure of other modes (railway depots, sea ports, river harbours, airports).
Meanwhile, the highway master plan has been integrated and harmonized with the remaining 4 transport sectoral master plans, therereby the list of priority projects for the national highway system, lists of local road projects required to prioritized to include into provincial planning are determined to ensure connectivity, smooth conversion with regional and national traffic network, ensuring effective investment.
To ensure flexibility, openness and pro-activity in investment, this master plan allows adjustments in investment schedule of the roads if the provincial governments find earlier demand for investment and can arrange resources availability for implementation; or when a local government need to expand the national highways passing its province which is included in the urban planning, the investment will be coordinated between central government’s funds for planned part and local government’s funds for the expanded part.
As the result, the planning suggested the list of priority projects based on the principle that the projects have high dissemination, being dynamic for regional or inter-regional development, investment will bring in immediate result. Remarkably, the planning prioritizes to include in the investment portfolio in 2021 -2030 period the routes having high circulation capacity to form the inter-regional expressway network, which is the backbone of the national highway system. Of which, the Eastern North-South expressway, some southern regional, central – highland , northern mountainous expressways, and urban ring roads in Hanoi, Hochiminh City are included; with specific objectives that by 2030, it is possible to operate over 5,000km of expressway as the goal set by the 13th National Communist Party’s Congress.
DRV General Director Nguyen Van Hien giving speech
This master plan ensures the development requirement on the entire national territory, aiming at sustainable development objective associate with environment protection, natural disaster prevention and response to climate change; allocation, exploitation and reasonable, effective use of natural resources. Modern public transport network is built combined with effective fuel use in public traffic activities, especially urban traffic, to reduce pollution. The means of transport must have satisfactory specification and quality versus environment protection requirements.
In the conference, Vice Minister Le Dinh Tho, VDR General Director appreciated highly TEDI-TDSI consultant joint venture for having implemented well instructions of the Government, MOT, VDR to complete this huge-scale master plan.
The main results of highway network planning:
(1) Expressway: The expressway network has been basically completed with 41 routes, the total length is around 9,014 km, including:
North-South longitudinal route (02 routes): Eastern North-South Expressway (From Lang Son – Ca Mau) with the length of about 2,063 km, the size is 4 – 10 lanes; The Western North-South Expressway has the length of around 1,205 km. 4 – 6 lane size: In the North, there are 14 routes, with the length of approx. 2,305 km, 4 – 6 lane size; In Central – Highland Region, there are 10 routes, with 1,431 km length, 4 – 6 lane size. The South is planned with 10 routes cover the length of 1,290 , 4 – 10 lane size. Hanoi Metropolis Ring roads consist of 03 roads, 429 km long, 4 – 6 lane; HCMC urban ring roads consist of 02 routes, 291 km long, 4 – 8 lane.
(2) The national highway network : including 172 routes, 29,795 km long (5,474 km longer than that in 2021), divided into main important and secondary important national highways, the minimum technical class is class 3 for ordinary road and class 4 for difficult sections.
(3) The coastal road: Passing 28 provinces and cities, the total length is 3,034 km, 2 – 4 lane size, the route alignment of the sections that do not overlap with national highways, expressways are decided in the master plan , while that of sections overlapping with expressways, national highways will be invested by MOT, funds for construction of remaining sections will be arranged by local authorities before 2030./.
