HANOI – The Government has shown its determination to speed up the legal procedures and conditions for the Long Thanh International Airport project by setting the first quarter of 2021 as the deadline for the groundbreaking of the mammoth project.
In a resolution released after the recent September cabinet meeting, the Government said that the construction of the project is slated for between 2021 and 2025.
Despite the delayed appraisal and approval due to the immensity of the project and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the investor of the project, has completed a prefeasibility study and has presented it to the State Appraisal Council before submitting it to the Government.
As per the feedback of the State Appraisal Council, the project will cost a total of VND109.2 trillion or U$4.67 billion, down by over VND2.4 trillion (US$109 million) compared with the previous estimation. The difference was caused due to the various calculation methods of the documents.
As a result, the cost for consulting and backup has been cut by VND677.9 billion. The building cost has been slashed by over VND2.2 trillion, while the equipment cost has been revised up by VND443 billion.
Long Thanh will meet the 4F standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization to become an international transit center in the region. Once it commences, the investor will build a runway, a passenger terminal and facilities with a handling capacity of 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo annually.
However, ACV only invests in key works such as passenger terminal, air infrastructure, water supply and drainage, cargo terminal and roads leading to metro lines No. 1 and 2.
The Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation will be in charge of other components, while the relevant State agencies will build their own offices. The Ministry of Transport will select investors for other service facilities such as a cargo terminal, aviation industrial sections and logistics zones.
By Lan Nhi
