HCMC – The Government has given the green light for the first phase of the Long Thanh International Airport project in Dong Nai Province with an estimated investment of more than VND109 trillion (US$4.7 billion).
On November 11, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung signed a decision approving the first phase of the project, which is expected to become an important international airport of the country and an international air transit hub in the region, the local media reported.
In the first phase of the project, a passenger terminal, a runway and supporting facilities will be developed to transport 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo per year, which are all expected to be completed in 2025.
The airport will be connected with National Highway 51 and the HCMC-Long Thanh Expressway.
The project is divided into four subprojects: the headquarters of state management agencies, flight control facilities, essential airport facilities and other facilities.
Of these, the capital for the headquarters of state management agencies will be sourced from these agencies. If they are incapable of allocating capital, the subproject will be executed under the public private partnership model.
For the second subproject, flight control facilities, the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation will be the investor.
In addition, essential airport facilities, including apron and passenger and cargo terminals, were assigned to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam, which will use its capital for the construction.
The Ministry of Transport will choose the investor for the last subproject.
The airport project would need some 2,700 hectares of land in the first phase, including over 1,800 hectares for the airport, 136 hectares for two roads leading to the airport and 722 hectares for the next phases.
The Long Thanh International Airport project will use modern technologies so it can be easily upgraded with the most advanced technologies in construction, management and operation in line with international standards.
The National Assembly approved the project’s investment plan in mid-2017 and also issued a resolution on compensation and resettlement policies for those affected by the project.
Early last month, the Government directed the Dong Nai government to quickly hand over the cleared site for the project so that work on the project can start early next year.
The project had earlier been divided into three phases that were expected to be completed by 2040. Four runways, four passenger terminals and auxiliary facilities will be developed to annually serve 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo.
