Ho Chi Minh City handed over 34 hectares of land on Thursday for the Ring Road 3 project which will connect the metropolis with the neighboring provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Long An.
The land is earmarked for an 8.2-kilometer section linking the provincial road 25B in Dong Nai province to the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway.
The 34 hectares account for 96% of the total land for the section, named 1A, of which 2 kilometers will go through Thu Duc city in HCMC. Land recovery involves 72 households, with compensation mounting to VND1,600 billion ($67.87 million).
Authorities aim to complete site clearance and hand over the remaining land to investors in the first quarter of 2023.
Construction of the VND6,955 billion ($295 billion) Ring Road 3 project began in September, and is set for completion in September 2025 and open at the end of that year. The road will have four lanes with a width of 20-26 meters that will allow a maximum speed of 80 km/h.
The 8.2-kilometer section, also known as the Tan Van-Nhon Trach route, will run 1.92 kilometers through HCMC and 6.3 kilometers in the neighboring province of Dong Nai.
As the first part of Ring Road 3 project, the quick progress of site clearance is expected to guide other sections of the ring road, said HCMC Vice Mayor Bui Xuan Cuong.
Other parts of Ring Road 3, totaling 76 kilometers, have investment capital of VND75.3 trillion ($3.19 billion).
HCMC authorities expect Ring Road 3 to create a strategic traffic axis that will help remove transportation bottlenecks. When the route is completed, the time taken from Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach district to HCMC and Binh Duong province will be shortened significantly.
Ring Road 3, along with the completion of Ring Road 2 and construction of Ring Road 4 in the years to come, as well as the construction of Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai province and satellite towns, will create strong development in the Southern Key Economic Zone.