National Highway 50B is planned as a vital traffic route connecting Ho Chi Minh City through Long An to Tien Giang, aiming to strengthen the socio-economic connection between the Western region and the Southern Key Economic Zone.
The starting point of the route is Pham Hung Street (HCMC) and ends at Trung Luong intersection (Tien Giang province).
Although planned for a long time, the project has not yet been implemented. The total preliminary investment for the entire National Highway 50B route is over 28,600 billion VND, currently the capital source has been identified at about 10,457 billion VND, needing to balance an additional 18,160 billion VND.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, the section through the city is about 5.8 km long, passing through Nha Be and Binh Chanh districts. The road is 40 m wide, has 6 lanes, and the total preliminary investment is nearly 5,300 billion VND.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has included the project in the medium-term public investment plan for the 2026-2030 period and proposed that the Central Government support 50% of the investment capital for this section, equivalent to about VND2,619 billion.
The 35.6km long route through Long An province has a total investment of about 16,208 billion VND.
Of which, the province has balanced more than 7,800 billion VND from ODA capital and local budget to build three bridges on DT.827E and 10.58 km of access roads.
However, Long An still needs to mobilize an additional VND8,370 billion to complete the remaining 19.4km, including site clearance costs (VND1,923 billion), infrastructure construction for resettlement areas (VND3,651 billion) and other costs.
The section through Tien Giang is 14km long with a total investment of about 7,170 billion VND. Of which, the cost of site clearance is 3,105 billion VND, the construction of parallel roads is 1,898 billion VND and the main route is 2,168 billion VND.
Recently, the Ministry of Transport has proposed to the Prime Minister an investment plan to soon implement the project.
The Ministry of Transport has agreed on the necessity of investing in National Highway 50B and will coordinate with localities to ensure consistency.
The Ministry of Transport proposed that the Government assign the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to preside over completing investment procedures for the section passing through Ho Chi Minh City immediately after the Ho Chi Minh City Planning Project for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, and the project to adjust the Ho Chi Minh City General Planning to 2040, with a vision to 2060 are approved.
For the section through Long An and Tien Giang, the Ministry of Transport proposed assigning the People's Committees of these two provinces to study in detail investment options, select appropriate forms, clarify the capital structure and submit to competent authorities for approval.
In case of needing support from the central budget, the three above localities will complete the report documents to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance for synthesis and submission to competent authorities for consideration and decision.
Currently, traffic connections from Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta mainly rely on National Highway 50, National Highway 1 and the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway. However, these routes are overloaded, requiring expansion and investment in new routes such as National Highway 50B.
Besides National Highway 50B, Ho Chi Minh City also invested in expanding National Highway 50 with a budget of nearly 1,500 billion VND and planned to expand National Highway 1 (from Kinh Duong Vuong Street to Long An border) to 10-12 lanes, with a capital of 15,897 billion VND under the BOT form.
The project to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway is also being promoted, increasing it to 8 lanes for motor vehicles and 2 emergency lanes, using BOT capital. The two expressway access roads, Binh Thuan - Cho Dem and Tan Tao - Cho Dem, are expected to be expanded to 6 lanes, using Ho Chi Minh City's budget capital.
