Eight bridges of friendship built by overseas Vietnamese engineers and local citizens were opened to traffic in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu yesterday, taking the total number to 24 so far.
The first bridge spanning Giong Bom river in Phong Thanh Tay commune, Gia Rai town measures 38 meters in length and 2.5 meters in width, built at VND365 million (US$16,000). Overseas Vietnamese engineers have directly designed and built the work, pledging their life span will be 40 years.
Mr. Vo Hoang Phuong, deputy chairman of the commune People’s Committee, thanked the engineers for their contribution to building the bridges, facilitating travel of local people, promoting Giong Bom battle historic relic site and boosting local economic development.
Seven other bridges were inaugurated in Hoa Binh, Long Hai, Vinh Loi districts and Bac Lieu city with the cost of VND1.7 billion ($75,000).
Overseas Vietnamese in France Nguyen Van Cong said that other overseas Vietnamese and he always wanted to contribute money and efforts in bridge building and felt happy to see the works useful for socioeconomic development of the province.
This year, the group will continue building an extra of five bridges for Bac Lieu province. So far they have built 232 bridges of friendship nationwide.
On the occasion of the inauguration of new bridges, the group gave local poor students in Bac Lieu 100 presents.
Deputy director of the provincial Department of Transport Bui Hong Ky granted certificates of merit by the provincial People’s Committee chairman to three overseas Vietnamese for their contributions.
