Three national highways in Cuu Long (Mekong Delta) provinces are expected to be upgraded and improved with a total investment cost of 7.1 trillion VND. (Photo: VNA)

A project to improve 77 kilometres of National Highway 62 and build an 8-kilometre bypass through the town of Tan Thanh, Tan Thanh district in Long An province, will cost an estimated 2.2 trillion VND, including a loan of 1.5 trillion VND and reciprocal capital of 705 billion VND.

For the 142-kilometre National Highway 91B south of the Hau River, the total investment capital will be 1.5 trillion VND, of which over 1.3 trillion VND will be sourced from borrowing.

The above projects are expected to shorten travel times, meet transportation demand, ensure traffic safety, complete the regional road systems and help respond to climate change in the Mekong Delta.

In addition, 16 projects worth 94.3 trillion VND (4 million USD) are proposed to boost traffic connections and prevent erosion and drought in the Mekong Delta.

Among those projects are a coastal road running 415 kilometres through seven provinces at a cost of 43 trillion VND and the second phase of an embankment project worth 4.1 trillion VND in Vinh Long.

The remaining projects include building new roads and canals or upgrading existing ones in the region.

The Mekong Delta, covering 40,000 square kilometres (four million hectares), or 13% of the nation’s total area, is home to 17.5 million people, or 18% of the nation’s population.

For generations, the delta, which has 1.5 million hectares of land cultivating rice, has been the rice bowl of the nation.

The region accounts for half of the nation’s rice production, 95% of rice exports, 65% of aquaculture production, and 70% of fruit output./.