The scale and the complexity of the Long Thanh Airport Project has meant that the review and evaluation process has fallen behind schedule, according to the Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.
Long Thanh Airport Model
For Long Thanh Airport Project, the State Appraisal Council hired a foreign consultant to help them with the review and evaluation works. On October 72019 the main content of the project were submitted to the National Assembly. On August 24 the State Appraisal Council approved of the project. The Ministry of Planning and Investment further completed the report and submitted it to the prime minister. However, progress was already significantly behind schedule.
“The evaluation process is slower than expected because this is a huge and complex project. Moreover, we couldn’t have face-to-face meetings due to Covid-19 so it took much longer than usual,” said the Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.
At the current rate, the construction of Long Thanh Airport is expected to start in 2021 and completed in 2025.
Long Thanh Airport is designed to serve 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo a year. It will cover 5000ha and has an investment of USD16bn. USD545bn will be used for construction in the first phase. The investment comes from the state budget, ODAs, capital from equitised state-owned firms and other sources.
On June 22018 the Airport Corporation of Vietnam, the investor of the project, signed contracts with consulting companies from Japan, France and Vietnam to carry out the consulting survey and feasibility study report for the first phase. The design was developed by South Korean firm Heerim Architects and Planners Co., Ltd which used the lotus theme.
On July 122019 the feasibility report was submitted to the prime minister and the State Appraisal Council. According to the report, there would be a 4000 metres long and 75 metres wide runway. The terminal will be able to serve 25 million passengers a year in the first phase and the control tower will be 123 metres high.
Moreover, the parking lots will be able to accommodate 4200 cars and the cargo terminal can deal with 1.2 million tonnes of cargo a year. There will be other facilities such as maintenance area and waste treatment facilities as well as sectors for the police, customs, health departments and transportation firms. The airport will be directly connected to main highways to HCM City.
