It is six months sooner than previously planned, Tran Quang Lam, the department’s director, said at a meeting attended by Ministry of Transport officials at the weekend.

The city amended the plan after the National Assembly said last month it would be allocated funds "soon" to complete Ring Road No.3 connecting it with neighboring industrial hubs by 2025.

The House chairman, Vuong Dinh Hue, told lawmakers that the "urgency" of the project has occasioned funding priority for it.

Stretching 76 km, the section is expected to cost more than VND75 trillion ($3.21 billion).

The entire road will run over 90 kilometers (56 miles) and enable vehicles to travel to Binh Duong, Long An and Dong Nai provinces without having to enter inner HCMC.

Lam said after the NA’s announcement that HCMC has worked with the three provinces to concretize construction plans.

This month the city would issue a resolution to carry out the project so that site clearance procedures could be completed by next month, he said.

Starting in October this year the four localities have to hand over at least 70 percent of the lands required by late next year and the rest by March 2024.

The plan by the four localities envisages basically finishing the road in October 2025 and opening it to traffic the following year.

Ring Road No.3 is the biggest ever transport project in the south.

HCMC and its neighbors agree that such a road is necessary to help tackle chronic traffic jams in several areas and spearhead economic and social development in the Southern Key Economic Region comprising HCMC, the industrial hubs of Dong Nai and Binh Duong, the neighboring provinces of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Tay Ninh, and Binh Phuoc, and the Mekong Delta provinces of Long An and Tien Giang.

Ten years since it was approved, only 16 km of the ring road have been completed, all in Binh Duong Province.

According to the Ministry of Transport, once finished, the road would have eight lanes for vehicles to travel at 100 kph.