Cà Mau Airport will be upgraded to a capacity of 1 million passengers per year by 2030. VNA Photo

CÀ MAU – The Mekong Delta province of Cà Mau plans to spend about VNĐ860 billion (US$34.4 million) from its budget for land clearance and to expand and upgrade Cà Mau Airport.

The provincial director of the Department of Planning and Investment, Nguyễn Đức Thánh, said that the project will start this year and be completed next year. It is expected that the province will reclaim about 105 hectares of land in Ward 6 and Tân Thành Ward in Cà Mau City to implement the airport upgrade project.

The province estimates that there will be five organisations and about 742 households and individuals affected.

From now to the end of the year, the department will develop a plan for compensation and resettlement support, and hand over part of the site to Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to begin construction.

The province will continue to carry out compensation and resettlement support, striving to hand over the entire remaining construction site to ACV in early 2025.

To achieve that goal, the provincial People's Committee has directed relevant agencies to promptly and fully implement compensation policies and resettlement support for affected organisations and individuals.

Along with that, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will advise and propose to the committee on a land clearance plan with criteria of creating favourable conditions for affected households to have a better life.

In addition, the province will also ensure adequate supply of construction materials to keep the project on schedule.

In recent times, the shortage of sand and stone supply has greatly affected the investment cost and construction progress of investment and construction projects in Cà Mau Province.

According to the People's Committee, this project will need about 1.8 million cubic meters of various types of sand.

The current capacity of Cà Mau Airport is 200,000 passengers per year. It is expected that from now until 2030, Cà Mau will increase airport capacity to 1 million passengers per year.

Currently, this airport only operates one flight route, Cà Mau - HCM City and vice versa, with a frequency of four flights per week. – VNS