HCMCity (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has urged theministries of Transport and Defence to finalise a plan to expand Tan Son NhatInternational Airport in HCM City and report to the Government next week.

TheAirport Design and Construction Consultancy One Member Ltd Company (ADCC) hasbeen chosen to oversee the plan to expand and upgrade the airport.

Speakingat a working session on February 22, the Deputy PM urged ministries andagencies to conduct research and submit a detailed and adjusted plan to the Governmentfor final approval.

TheGovernment has chosen one of the three plans that were submitted by ADCC.

Hesaid it was essential to tackle bottlenecks and overloading at the airport,mobilise capital for the project, and improve investment efficiency, inaddition to ensuring construction safety and quality, as well as aviationsecurity.

TanSon Nhat airport, with a designed capacity of 25 million passengers, handled32.5 million passengers in 2016. The expansion plan is expected to enable theairport to serve 40-45 million passengers per year.

TheGovernment considered ADCC’s three major plans and chose the third proposal,which would use existing military land with investment of only 19.35 trillion VND(847.53 million USD) and would take no longer than three years to build, whilestill ensuring the required capacity of 43-45 million passengers per year by2018.

Underthe first proposal that was considered, a new system of runways, taxiways,aprons, terminals and auxiliary works would have been built on the golf coursearea in the northern part of the airport.

Anincrease of capacity to about 60 million passengers a year would have requiredabout 15 years of construction with an expected cost of about 201.35 trillion VND(8.82 billion USD).

Underthat plan, about 626 ha of land would have been needed to be cleared, includinga military area, golf course and 322 ha of residential land with around 140,000households.

Underanother proposal, which was rejected, a third runway would have been built. Apassenger terminal T4 was also proposed for the northern area of the airportand a passenger terminal T3 in the southern area.

Theplan would have required a total investment of 100.96 trillion VND (4.42billion USD) - 187.26 trillion VND (8.2 billion USD). Construction would havetaken 10 to 15 years to be completed.

DeputyPM Dung praised ADCC’s efforts and asked them to adjust and refine the chosenplan, which would cost less than the two other plans and has a shortercompletion date, while still increasing the airport’s capacity.

TanSon Nhat airport now serves 28 million passengers per year even though itscapacity was planned to be only 25 million per year until 2020.

Thechosen plan includes the construction of parallel taxiways and connectingtaxiways between the current runways and aircraft parking areas; rapid-exittaxiways and parallel taxiways between two runways; and renovation of thecurrent north runway.

Adual-use terminal (T3) with capacity of 10 million passengers per year, and apassenger terminal (T4) with an annual capacity of 10 million passengers willalso be built.

DeputyPM Dung said the transport ministry should identify the projects and sources ofcapital for the chosen plan.

“State-ownedenterprises will be responsible for contributing investment capital to theworks that uses State budget funds, such as taxiways and aircraft parkingareas, while the passenger terminal and service areas should mobilise privatecapital,” he said.

“Trafficroutes connected with the airport should be built with funds from HCM City’sPeople’s Committee,” he added. 

Thetransport ministry will work with the Department of Defence to identify themilitary land to be used and determine a land-transfer plan. It will alsoconsult the municipal People’s Committee to ensure that the projects areeffectively implemented.

Heasked the People’s Committee to develop a new plan to improve the urbanlandscape around the airport area and make adjustments to ensure smooth trafficnear the airport.

“TheMinistry of Transport needs to work closely with the ministries of Defence andConstruction, the People’s Committee, and other agencies to seek measures tospeed up the project to expand and upgrade the airport,” he said. 

TheMinistry of Defence on February 22 handed over 21 hectares of land to theMinistry of Transport to expand Tan Son Nhat airport.

Theland was once used for military airplane parking for the Military AviationBrigade 918 and Military Aviation Regiment 917. The two units will be relocatedto Bien Hoa City in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Lastyear, 32 million passengers passed through the airport.

Officialscontinue to work on a way to alleviate the load until the expected completionof Long Thanh International Airport in nearby Dong Nai Province in 2025.-VNA