An overview of the Lộc An-Bình Sơn resettlement area to serve the Long Thành International Airport. — VNA/VNS Photo Công Phong

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Lê Văn Thành has asked the southern province of Đồng Nai to focus on completing ground clearance work to speed up the first phase of the Long Thành International Airport project.

The People’s Committee of Đồng Nai was requested to implement compensation, support and resettlement packages for local residents affected by the project.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, Đồng Nai has to conduct ground clearance on total area of 5,000 hectares for the project, including 2,532 hectares for its first phase.

So far, Đồng Nai has handed over 1,284 hectares of cleared land to the Southern Airports Authority, or 51 per cent of the total area for the first phase of the project. However, the Ministry of Transport said ground clearance activities remained slow.

The People’s Committee of Long Thành District attributed the issues to problems over compensation for a number of difficult cases, including those having the land transferred and presented with handwriting agreements, along with COVID-19 impacts. It has received guidance from the provincial people’s committee to deal with the issues.

According to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the Long Thành International Airport will be built in three phases over three decades. In the first phase, one runway with a length of 4,000m, taxiways, an apron, and a passenger terminal with other auxiliary works sprawling 373,000sqm will be built to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo each year.

The airport, which was expected to cost VNĐ336.63 trillion (US$14.5 billion), is designed to have four runways, four passenger terminals, and other auxiliary facilities to ensure a capacity of 100 million passengers and 5 million tonnes of cargo a year by 2040.

Located 40km to the east of HCM City, the Long Thành International Airport is expected to relieve overloading at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in the southern hub, now the country’s largest airport. — VNS