These days, the southern region is experiencing chilly weather. Standing in Khanh Hoi in District 4, you can have a panoramic view of the whole city and on the other side of District 1, you can see the lotus bulb shaped Bitexco Building towards Nha Rong Wharf and Ho Chi Minh Museum. Near Bitexco Building is Vo Van Kiet Boulevard running along Ben Nghe Canal. The most beautiful and modern road is found on one third of the East-West highway, connecting Binh Chanh, Binh Tan districts, districts 8,6,5,4,1, and running through Thu Thiem Tunnel underneath the Saigon River, opening up quick access to district 2.
Thu Thiem, the most modern river tunnel in Southeast Asia, is the most important section of the East-West highway project to ease congestion in the inner city as well as from the downtown area to the Mekong Delta Region.
The Thu Thiem Tunnel, a road project designed to cross the Saigon River in the largest city of Vietnam, began in 2004 with US$189m capital provided by Japanese ODA (official development assistance) and by a consortium of four Japanese contractors: Obayashi Corporation, Taisei Corporation, the Kumagai-Kajima consortium and Toa Corporation.
New technology was used to build a 1,490 m tunnel under the Saigon River as one of the Thu Thiem project's most ambitious features.
The tunnel comprises four sections, each 93m long, 33m wide and 9m high, and weighing 27,000t. The tunnel has six lanes, four for automobiles and two for motorbikes. It also has two emergency exit lanes on the sides. The tunnel has a designed speed limit of 60 km per hour and a lifespan of 100 years.
On September 21, 2010 the tunnel connected the two riverbanks of the Sai Gon River, and District 1 and District 2. The Thu Thiem Tunnel and the East-West Highway officially opened to traffic on November 20, 2011, an important event for HCM City.
The 13th HCM City People’s Council, at its third session, recently agreed to rename the Thu Thiem Tunnel to the underground road crossing the Saigon River, as the name Saigon and the Saigon River has long, close associations for people in the 300-year-old southern land.
80-year old Nguyen Trong Xuat, alias Sau Nhan, a researcher and historian of Southern Vietnam who was the first to visit the tunnel after its inauguration, said, “This is a high-tech transport project under which Vietnamese engineers had a good chance to learn technical experience from their counterparts, thus helping them carry out similar modern projects to serve the nation.”
Along with Thu Thiem Tunnel, the East-West Highway is considered the most beautiful of HCM City and a key project for its urban traffic infrastructure system. The highway was built at a total cost US$762 million, of which 65 percent comes from Japanese Government ODA loans and the rest from the city’s budget.
The 22 km highway connects the East and West of the city by a single route with a travel time of less than 30 minutes. The route, running through the eight districts of 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, Binh Tan and Binh Chanh, is an artery linking HCM City to southeast and southwest provinces.
During a fact-finding tour before the inauguration of Thu Thiem and the entire East-West Highway, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan expressed his delight in the completion of the project. He said the project showed the brainpower and great efforts made by municipal authorities and people, as well as domestic and foreign experts and engineers. All have joined hands to overcome six years of difficulties to reach the goal on schedule.
Mr Hai said, “The project aims to deal with inner-city transport issues and create favourable conditions for boosting economic development in the South and the East, turning the Thu Thiem new urban area into a financial and trade centre of the city in the future. In the context of the financial and economic crisis, the municipal Party Committee, authorities and people have still exerted every effort to mobilize all resources for this strategic project.”
The Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal upgrade project in 2011 also contributed to improving drainage and environmental sanitation in the city.
The city is currently carrying out a project to upgrade the road section along the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal running from Le Van Sy to Nguyen Huu Canh Street, with total investment capital of more than VND400 billion.
Despite the difficulties and challenges presented by the global economic downturn in 2011, HCM City ironed out all obstacles to reach a GDP growth rate of 10.3 percent, 1.7 times the national average, and ensured social welfare.
By late 2011, the household poverty rate under the city’s new criteria dropped to 5.3 percent, making the city the leader with the lowest number of poor households.
Such new projects and impressive figures will provide fresh impetus for the city to move forward and develop steadily in 2012.
Source : VOVNews