The Ministry of Transport has approved the first phase of National Highway 20 upgrade to transport bauxite ore from the Central Highland province of Lam Dong to southern Dong Nai province.

Highway 20 - the Bao Loc Pass

According to Decision 2525/QD-BGTVT, signed by Minister Dinh La Thang on November 7, the 123km road from Lam Dong rovince to Go Dau Port in Dong Nai province will be injected with over VND7.6 trillion ($364 million) from the State budget.

This part of the highway has been in use for 30 years and reported to be in need of an upgrade to better serve the bauxite mining industry.

Construction will include different paths with widths of 7m, 12m, 15m and 27m depending on the locations of deltas, mountains and cities. Surfaces will accordingly have high load capacities of 1,600 kilos per square centimetre to meet the requirements of lorries carrying bauxite to run at a speed of 60 to 80km per hour. It will be constructed under the Build-Transfer model.

The first phase will run for three years, starting this month.

This is one part of the two-phase project of the 268km National Highway 20, which runs from HCM City to the region.

Bauxite is an aluminium ore. Reserves in the Central Highlands are estimated at 5.4 billion tonnes.