On January 4, 2015, the Ministry of Transport held an inauguration ceremony for national key transport projects including Nhat Tan Bridge, Vo Nguyen Giap Avenue, VIP A Lounge at Noi Bai International Airport and the biggest terminal in Vietnam – terminal T2 of Noi Bai Airport.

Attending the inauguration were the National Assembly’s Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, former Party’s General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, the National Assembly’s former Chairman Nguyen Van An, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh and Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai. Representatives from the Japanese Government were Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akihiro Ohta and Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Hiroshi Fukada. Officials from ministries, sectors, agencies and localities also participated in the ceremony.

Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai highly commended and appreciated the completion of the projects, which play an important role in national socio-economic development. He took the occasion to express thanks to the Japanese Government and people for their support and cooperation when supplying official development assistance (ODA) for the projects. This also symbolized Japanese-Vietnamese friendship, he added.

The projects are worth over 38,600 billion dong. Terminal T2’s construction cost nearly 18,000 billion dong from the Japanese Government’s ODA with a projected capacity of serving about 10 million customers a year. This is the most modern terminal in Vietnam with a nature friendly design that takes advantage of solar energy.

VIP A lounge, covering a total area of 5,000m2, is designed like a “petal-shaped garden.” It is supposed to be used for formal welcoming ceremonies with a meeting room allowing talks between senior officials and foreign guests in accordance with international diplomatic protocol.

Nhat Tan Bridge on belt road No. 2 is the longest suspension bridge in Vietnam which crosses the Red River with a total investment of 13,626 billion dong. The 3.7km long deck is hung below ssuspension cables on five suspenders. The access road is 5.1km long and 60m wide with four lanes. It is regarded as one of the few suspension bridges in the world which use cables made from multiple strands of wire.

The last project to be opened on January 4 is the road named after General Vo Nguyen Giap. The 12km long and 100m wide road with six lanes has a total investment of 6,700 billion dong, connecting Nhat Tan Bridge and Noi Bai Airport.

The inauguration and usage of these modern projects is an important milestone of Hanoi at the beginning of 2015, contributing to addressing the aim of building and developing an ever-increasing modern and synchronous infrastructure in the capital./.