A five-kilometre section of the Tan Son Nhat- Binh Loi Outer Ring Roadin Ho Chi Minh City opened to traffic on September 28.

It has 12 lanes and runs from Nguyen Thai Son intersection not far from the airport to National Highway 13.

The 1.1km, 12-lane Binh Loi Bridge across the Sai Gon River is on thehighway, which is named under after former Prime Minister Pham Van Dong.

The bridge is expected to serve around 40 percent of the traffic crossing the Sai Gon River from the city.

It is an important part of the ring road, serving to connect Tan SonNhat International Airport with industrial parks in Binh Duong Provincethrough National Highway 13.

It is expected to helpreduce traffic, accidents, and pollution on severely congested roadslike Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Dinh Bo Linh, Bach Dang, Phan Dang Luu, and PhanVan Tri streets.

The ring road, to measure a totalof 13.6km, starts at the airport in Tan Binh District and will end inThu Duc District at National Highway 1.

It will run through the districts of Go Vap and Binh Thanh.

It will cost nearly 495 million USD, with land and relocation accounting for 281.3 million USD.

Construction began in 2008. It is 75 percent complete and expected to be finished in 2014.

It is the country's first BT (build - transfer) project incollaboration with a foreign partner, the Republic of Korea-based GSE&C Company.

Nearly 4,000 households with 30,000 people had to be relocated for the work.-VNA