Design of Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport’s T3 Terminal in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of ACV

HCM CITY — Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyễn Danh Huy last week urged site clearance handovers to be speeded up in order to start construction on the T3 Terminal of Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in HCM City in December.

Speaking at a press conference held after the monthly Government meeting, the Deputy Minister said it is important to have work on the airport’s new terminal start soon.

The site dedicated for the new terminal is mainly national defence land. The municipal People’s Committee will appraise and approve the site clearance compensation, and issue a decision of the revocation of the land.

The contractor and investor have to have enough financial resources, technical design documents and approved bidding procedures.

The investor has approved the plan of technical design and selected the contractor for the project's foundation since the end of July.

Earlier, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính visited the airport and called on work to start in the third quarter of this year and for the contractor to be ready for the project.

The municipal People’s Committee will soon issue two decisions approving compensation and site clearance plans, and revoking land.

Construction of the project will begin one week later after the land revocation and site handover are completed.

It is expected to start work from December 15 to 25.

The growth in the number of passengers after the COVID-19 pandemic has reflected a strong recovery of the economy, the aviation industry and tourism activities. However, it caused an overload at major airports in the county such as Nội Bài in Hà Nội and Tân Sơn Nhất in HCM City.

In recent years, the number of passengers travelling via Tân Sơn Nhất airport has increased strongly to nearly double its designed capacity.

In 2020, the Government approved the project to build T3 Terminal at Tân Sơn Nhất airport at a cost of nearly VNĐ11 trillion (US$448 million), using the Airports Corporation of Vietnam's (ACV) budget.

More than 16ha of military land is required to build the new terminal. Construction is expected to take 37 months.

Once operational, it will be able to serve up to 20 million passengers annually.

The new terminal will handle domestic flights, helping to ease pressure on T1 Terminal that is currently overloaded.

However, implementation of the project has been delayed due to some obstacles such as site clearance and procedures relating to land use planning.

The Government leader urged the construction to be completed in September 2024 at the latest.

The Ministry of National Defence was tasked to complete site clearance, and the Ministry of Transport to oversee the construction. — VNS