A map shows the planned Provincial Highway 25C leading to the Long Thành International Airport in Đồng Nai Province. — Photo www.baodongnai.com.vn

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Transport has called on Đồng Nai Province to soon start construction of two roads leading to the under-construction Long Thành International Airport, the country’s largest.

Deputy Minister of Transport Lê Anh Tuấn said the airport is a key national project that would become one of the region’s international air transport hubs.

“Building roads to the airport is very important to ensure its operation and regional connectivity.”

A number of transport projects are being carried out to ensure transport connectivity, including Ring Road No. 3 and Provincial Highway 25C in Đồng Nai Province.

The ministry has urged the Đồng Nai Province People’s Committee to soon complete Highway 25C and the Ring Road No. 3 section between Provincial Highway 25B and the Bến Lức-Long Thành expressway.

With a length of 3.1km, 25C directly leading to the airport will have eight lanes.

Its construction at a cost of VNĐ624 billion (US$26.5 million) is expected to be completed along with the airport’s first phase in 2025.

Ring Road No. 3 has a total length of more than 76km and will pass through HCM City and the provinces of Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and Long An.

Its construction is set to restart in June 2023 after prolonged delays.

It will have four lanes in the first phase, and be widened to six or eight in the second.

Mega project

Long Thành airport is expected to spearhead Đồng Nai’s growth, and so the province has started to develop a modern transport network to optimise its potential.

Spread over an area of more than 5,000 hectares, the airport will straddle six communes in the province’s Long Thành District.

Around 4,800 households and 26 businesses will be relocated to make way for it.

It will have four passenger terminals to handle a total of 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo a year by 2040.

Its construction has been divided into three phases and will cost an estimated VNĐ336.6 trillion ($14.3 billion).

In the first phase, construction of one runway and terminal each, taxiways and some other works to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo a year started in early 2021. It is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

The piling construction package for the passenger terminal, the most important work, began in March and set to be completed in October. — VNS