S.Korea Firms Sign $2.06M Design Deal for WB-funded Expressway in Vietnam

Vietnam Expressway Corp. (VEC), South Korea’s Dohwa Engineering Co., Ltd and Korea Expressway Corp. yesterday signed a consultancy and designing agreement worth $2.06 million for the Danang-Quang Ngai expressway.Under the deal, the South Korea firms will help VEC control the quality of construction, supervise and evaluate the project and help the project complete within 60 months.Vietnam will start construction of the Danang-Quang Ngai expressway next June, Deputy Director of the Transport Ministry’s Project Managing Unit (PMU), Nguyen Trung Sy said.The expressway costs VND29 trillion ($1.4 billion), of which $635 million comes from the World Bank (WB) and $673 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).The 140-kilometer expressway, which links Danang province and Quang Ngai province in the central region, is expected to allow vehicles to travel at 100 km-120km/hour.The project will cover an area of 963 hectares in Danang city and the provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai. It runs through private land and property; and site clearance has cost VND1 trillion so far. (Kinh Te Viet Nam & The Gioi – Vietnam & World Economy Feb 8 p3)