Intrepid tourists may for decades to come continue to drive up the picturesque but hazardous and winding Hai Van Pass highway in central Vietnam that overlooks the South China sea.
But truckers and other motorists seeking to be rid of a major ordeal on a key route linking the north and south of Vietnam will soon have the option of a quick dash in under ten minutes through a spanking new tunnel.
The 6.3km infrastructure project, set to open to the public in June after a series of delays, cuts 15km of nervous driving on some steep slopes and hairpin bends along the majestic mountain, an accident blackspot which sees three or four traffic accidents each month, many serious.
But more importantly, the feat of engineering represents a giant technological leap for this rapidly developing communist nation, as well as promising economic benefits to Vietnam's central region.
"I am very happy, very proud," says Nguyen Ngoc Canh, the diminutive project manager of the tunnel, chuckling contentedly as he strides under the shadow of the 1,172m tall Hai Van Massif.
"This is a very new technology project for Vietnam," Canh told reporters. Parts of the highway on the Hai Van Pass -- literally "Pass of the Ocean Cloud" as the mountain plunges into the South China Sea -- rise to heights of about 475m above sea level. The tunnel is also part of key improvements to a major road link to Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
The inside of the tunnel, which has been built with Japanese loans and technology, can hold its own against similar structures in such developed places as Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of equipment and safety facilities.
"It is the longest highway tunnel in Southeast Asia," says Canh.
Although dwarfed by land and undersea tunnels in Japan, the Hai Van tunnel is an important landmark for Vietnam.
"This will bring about major economic and social changes to the region," says Masayuki Karasawa, chief representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in Hanoi, which financed the project.
The tunnel, which has been in construction since 2000, "will solve a bottleneck [and allow] for smooth traffic, cut travel time and costs significantly, and facilitate to take goods and services through the corridor to the gateway to the sea at Danang Port," says Karasawa.
As the most important port city in central Vietnam, Danang is striving to become an industrial hub.
Situated about 750km south of Hanoi and 950km north of the southern business capital Ho Chi Minh City, it is linked to all important Vietnamese cities by rail.
But Danang has failed so far to become a real third hub of development in Vietnam, after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
However, given the emphasis by Vietnam's leadership on developing the central regions and with the road link-up to Thailand through Laos, Danang and nearby areas are on the verge of rapid growth, suggests William Costin, of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
"I have absolutely no doubt that with these improvements [to the link] and the Hai Van tunnel there will be considerable opportunities and benefits to Danang and the surrounding areas in central Vietnam," says Costin, head of infrastructure, urban development and social sectors in ADB's Hanoi mission.
The tunnel, situated on Highway No. 1, which goes all the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, nearly 1,800km away, cost US$200 million and JBIC covered the amount.
"If the toll for [using the] tunnel is 2.5 times the average toll level on national highways of Vietnam -- 25,000 dong [about US$1.60] per passenger car compared with average toll of 10,000 dong -- the investment cost shall be recovered in 25 years," Karasawa says.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion