Road to Vietnam's largest port to be widened

By Le Tuyet December 7, 2023 | 05:25 pm PT

Container trucks on Nguyen Thi Dinh Street that leads to Cat Lai Port in HCMC's Thu Duc City, April 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Gia Minh

The street leading to Vietnam's largest port Cat Lai in HCMC will be expanded from 6-8 m to 30 m to serve increasing traffic demand.  

According to a plan announced Wednesday by Ho Chi Minh City's authorities, a 2-km-long section of Nguyen Thi Dinh Street will be enlarged at the cost of VND2.075 trillion (US$85.4 million), including VND1.8 trillion for site clearance and VND295 billion for compensation.

The section will run between Giong Ong To and My Thuy bridges.

The city People's Committee said once the People's Council approves an investment plan for the project, related agencies will start work on compensating and relocating affected families so that the city can organize bidding to find a contractor in 2025 and complete the expansion in 2026.

In June, HCMC proposed to the Ministry of Transport a plan to build a new route to Cat Lai port. The proposal said the new route would link Tan Cang-Cat Lai Terminal with HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway, which connects HCMC and Dong Nai Province, and Ring Road No.3, which is still under construction to allow vehicles to travel to and from Binh Duong, Long An and Dong Nai, without having to enter inner HCMC.

Approximately 4.9 million 20-foot containers are handled in HCMC each year, which equates to about 3 million trucks, or more than 8,000 trucks per day transiting in and around the city to discharge or load containers from the port area.

Tan Cang-Cat Lai Terminal handles over 92% of this, and roughly half of the country's total container volume.

It is estimated that trucks go in and out of the port 19,000 times every day, causing frequent traffic jams.