North–South expressway (Vietnam)
The North–South expressway (CT.01) is a planned, partially completed, Vietnamese expressway running parallel to National Highway 1, running from Lạng Sơn to Cà Mau. It has been described as Vietnam's future transport backbone. The expressway will be 2.063 km long, with a total cost estimate of VND 350 trillion (equivalent to US$18.5 billion). According to 2017 estimates, yearly total transport volume over Vietnam's North-South corridor would be 45.37 million passengers and 62.27 million tons of goods by 2020, which would exceed the capacity of current infrastructure by 10% to 25%. Four  goals of the project have been formulated by the Ministry of Transport: Development. The expressway is being built in 16 sections. Construction of the first section, covering 98 km from Cam Lo to La Son, started in September 2019, with opening targeted for 2021. The central section of the North-South Expressway will stretch 654 kilometers from Nam Dinh Province near Hanoi to Vinh Long Province and will cost an estimated VND118 trillion ($5.1 billion). According to the approved master plan, 4 sections would be completed by 2010: Cầu Giẽ – Ninh Bình, TP Hồ Chí Minh – Trung Lương, Long  Thành – Dầu Giây, Trung Lương – Mỹ Thuận – Cần Thơ, with the total length of 222 km, estimated cost of VND 53,135 billion. The total cost of the project is estimated at VND 350 trillion (equivalent to US$18.5 billion), making it the second most expensive infrastructure project in Vietnam, after Long Thanh International Airport. In 2019, the Ministry of Transport decided to exclude foreign investors from bidding on the North-South expressway, mainly to prevent Chinese companies from participating. Public backslash was feared if Chinese companies would collect toll fees, due to strong anti-Chinese sentiment in the country, and  national security concerns played a part as well. However, lack of bidders has led to low competition between the bids, and two out of five sections had not attracted any bids. In 2020, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng petitioned to the National Assembly to switch development of the remaining sections of the North–South expressway to state funding instead of build-operate-transfer contracts, in order to avoid delays in raising capital and to reduce interest amount. After public funding was approved, construction on the sections - Phan Thiet, Ninh Binh - Thanh Hoa and Phan Thiết - Dau Giay  started in 2020.