North-South Expressway must extend to Ca Mau Cape: PM

The North-South Expressway should run all the way to Ca Mau Cape instead of Ca Mau town as currently planned, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

He said this Saturday during a visit to the construction site of the Can Tho-Ca Mau Expressway project, which is part of the eastern section of the North-South Expressway.

The shortest, straightest extension proposed by the PM would be 70 km long.

The four-lane, 110 km long Can Tho-Ca Mau Expressway is being built at a cost of more than VND27,200 billion ($1.12 billion). Work on what is considered the most important route in the Mekong Delta region, which connects many provinces and cities with 128 bridges, began early this year.

Site clearance work is basically complete, except for land related to 80 households in five provinces. The source of foundation materials is also basically guaranteed, the PM learnt. He was also told that the project was 15% complete.

The Ministry of Transport said it would collect comments on the draft adjustments to the road network plan for the 2021-2030 period (with vision to 2050). In particular, the North-South Expressway eastern section will be extended 90 km for a lotal length of 2,153 km and it will be expanded from four to 10 lanes.

The North-South Expressway starts from Huu Nghi border gate in Lang Son province to Dat Mui in Ngoc Hien district, Ca Mau province.

The four-lane 90-kilometer Ca Mau-Dat Mui extension section will be invested in before 2030. It is estimated that this section will be used by 18,300-20,100 cars per day.

Upgrade Ca Mau airport

In addition to the expressway construction site, the PM also visited the Ca Mau airport, which dates back to the French colonial times. Its 1,500m long, 30m wide runway can only accommodate small aircraft. For many years, it was used for just one route Ca Mau-Ho Chi Minh City, which operates five flights a week.

Since April 29 this year, the airport has hosted another route, Ca Mau-Hanoi, with three flights a week. The flights are always crowded, but their frequency has to be limited because of the airport’s limited capacity.

Prime Minister Chinh asked the province to upgrade the airport so that it can receive larger aircraft.

The Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau is the nation’s southernmost locality. It forms a peninsula with a 254 km coastline and has large fishing grounds of about 80,000 km2, and rich aquatic resources. Its aquaculture area covers more than 300,000 hectares. The province is the country’s biggest shrimp producer. Its annual export turnover of over $1 billion comes mainly from seafood.

Currently, Ca Mau has nearly 5,000 businesses with a total registered capital of about VND62,000 billion ($2.55 billion), and 446 active investment projects, with a total registered capital of over VND144,612 billion ($5.96 billion), including nine FDI projects with a total registered capital of $153.4 million.