HCMC – The Yen Bai-Lao Cai road section, part of the Noi Bai-Lao Cai expressway in northern Vietnam, needs expanding to cope with a rising traffic volume that poses a risk of traffic congestion and accidents, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry has written to the People’s Committee of Lao Cai Province, through which the expressway section passes, about the route expansion, the local media reported.

The 264-kilometer Noi Bai-Lao Cai expressway was put into service in 2014, traveling through five northern localities comprising Hanoi City, and Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Yen Bai and Lao Cai provinces. The expressway includes the four-lane Noi Bai-Yen Bai section and the two-lane Yen Bai-Lao Cai.

The expressway has seen an upsurge in traffic volume after years of being put into use.

The Transport Ministry, therefore, asked the provincial government of Lao Cai to closely coordinate with the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises to study and implement the route expansion plan to satisfy transport demand and ensure traffic safety on the entire route.

Earlier, the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), the investor and operator of the Noi Bai-Lao Cai expressway, had sought the Transport Ministry’s nod to allow it to widen the Yen Bai-Lao Cai section.

VEC, in its proposal, said it would mobilize capital from legal sources to widen this 83-kilometer section to four lanes, with a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour.

The expansion project would require VND8.7 trillion. Of which expanding the Yen Bai-Lao Cai section would cost some VND5.6 trillion, while more than VND3 trillion would be needed for road surface roughening and building three bridges on the Noi Bai-Yen Bai section.