HCM City (VNA) - The Government hassubmitted to the National Assembly a feasibility study to acquire land for theconstruction of Long Thanh international airport in the southern province of DongNai and pay compensation to land owners.

The study, which wascompleted by the Ministry of Transport and assessed by the Ministry of Planningand Investment, calls for speeding up site clearance and compensation to ensurethe project’s progress while ensuring legitimate interests of the affectedhouseholds.

According to the report, DongNai province’s People’s Committee was assigned to be the investor of the landacquisition, compensation and resettlement project of Long Thanh airport.

The project has a totalland area of about 5,585.14 ha (excluding the area of land recovered forthe construction of road works connecting to Long Thanh airport estimated at29.5 ha) in six communes in Long Thanh District.

The area of landrecovered for the construction of the airport is 5,000 ha, including 2,750 hafor construction of airport infrastructure, 1,050 ha for defense purposes and1,200 ha for other aviation and commercial projects.

The area of landrecovered for construction of resettlement areas is 565 ha in Binh Son and LocAn communes, while the reclaimed land for construction of a cemetery is about20 ha in Binh An commune in Long Thanh district.

The affected families willbe compensated for their houses and other construction works attached to theland based on the market value of the construction of the house at the time ofcompensation, according to the feasibility study.

They will be provided jobtraining, job conversion and job searches in case the State recoversagricultural land from households and individuals directly engaged inagricultural production.

They will be financiallysupported for the rent while waiting for construction of new houses at 4million VND (180 USD) per household per month or they will be arranged to stayat temporary houses set up by the provincial authorities. The period of rentsupport is five months from the time the provincial authority allocates theland for resettlement.

Poor households who haveall their agricultural land taken over shall, in addition to the prescribedallowances, be entitled to an additional allowance from 10 million VND to 30million VND per household.

Assistance will be given tochildren of resettled families (for their pre-school, general education andsupplementary schools in Dong Nai province as well as study expenses for notmore than three academic years.

In addition, students fromthe affected families will be able to get loans for their study in accordancewith Government regulations on credit for students.

According to the Dong NaiPeople’s Committee, the affected residents will also be provided withemployment counseling and job recommendation services free of charge.

They will also have accessto loans with special interest rates at 50 percent of the lending interest ratefor poor households or be arranged to work at Long Thanh International Airportduring construction and when it is put into operation.

If they want to work abroadfor a finite term, they will receive financial support and may get loans to paythe related expenses at an interest rate equal to 50 percent of the lendinginterest rate applicable to poor households.

Enterprises which employlabourers in the affected areas shall be provided with 100 percent of financialneeds  for labour training, medical insurance premiums, social insurancepremiums and unemployment insurance premiums for laborers, according toregulations.

Regarding health services,the affected residents will be provided with health insurance for three years.

In addition, households andindividuals whose land is affected by the project will also be relocated in tworesettlement areas in the province.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, more than 15,000residents will be affected by the airport project, 70 percent of them farmers,with the others being workers at rubber plantations and those with other jobs.

To acquire 5,000 ha for the first stage of the airport, 4,730households and 26 offices will have to be relocated.

Compensation payments are estimated at over 18 trillion VND (792.64million USD).

The first phase of the airport is scheduled to be completed in2023 and the final phase in 2050.-VNA