ADB has approved a loan of 8.56 trillion dong to develop second arterial highway sections connecting Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta and the southern coastal regions. The road work will be taken up under the Central Mekong Delta Region Connectivity Project and involves construction of two cable-stayed bridges covering 5 km and access roads covering 26 km. The project stretch road will cover the boundaries of An Giang, Can Tho, and Dong Thap provinces. The project is expected to reduce the travel time between Ho Chi Minh City and Long Xuyen by one hour, and between the Cao Lanh ferry and the Vam Cong ferry from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes. It will also reduce the distance between Cao Lanh and Long Xuyen from the existing 35.4 km to 29 km. The work is expected to be completed by end-2017. The cost of the project is estimated at 17.96 trillion dong, of which 8.56 trillion dong is being financed by ADB; 2.97 trillion dong is from the Australian Agency for International Development (for the Cao Lanh bridge and the interconnecting road); 5.43 trillion dong is from the Export-Import Bank of Korea (for the Vam Cong bridge); and the remaining amount is from the Vietnam government.
