Workers cut down rubber trees in a plantation located within an area marked for the construction of Long Thành International Airport in Đồng Nai. — VNA/VNS Photo Công Phong

Chairman of the Đồng Nai People’s Committee Cao Tiến Dũng speaks to Đồng Nai newspaper about the 1,800ha of land that will be made available for the construction of Long Thành Airport slated for late October.

What are Đồng Nai authorities doing to ensure land clearance for the first phase of construction for Long Thành Airport is completed by October?

Right now we are in the process of settling land clearance and compensation for households having to relocate for Long Thành Airport. We’re confident that more than 1,800ha of clean land will be ready for the first phase of the airport's construction by late October as we promised to the Government.

The most challenging task for us right now is finding places to live for the people who have had their land claimed for the construction of the airport because the number is quite a lot. Đồng Nai is making advance payments and urging the households to find places to temporarily move to, to make room for the project. In the days ahead, we planned to hold a random number picking for these households to decide the locations for their new homes in the Lộc An-Bình Sơn resettlement area. According to our plan, by late October, 1,800ha of clean land for the construction of the Long Thành Airport will be available for the project.

Of the 1,800ha that Đồng Nai authorities will have to hand over for the airport authority in October, more than 630ha belong to local households. Long Thành District People’s Committee has already paid more than VNĐ900 billion ($38 million) in compensation to 456 households who have had their land revoked for the construction of the airport.

There is a big rubber plantation on that land. How will that be dealt with?

A plan for clearing the rubber plantation has already been decided. However, the current pandemic has delayed the progress of cutting down of the trees, due to lower number of exports resulting in less demands. Still, we believe that by late October we’ll have cleared the land for the Long Thành Airport project, because after all, the cutting down of the trees is easier than calculating compensation lands for hundreds of households.

How about the settlement of the remaining 3,000ha for the airport?

According to the plan, compensation for the remaining 3,000ha will be completed by late November. In other words, within December this year, the entire 5,000ha will be available for the construction of the airport.

In the meantime, we’ve focused our investment on the construction of the Lộc An-Bình Sơn resettlement area for people who have been relocated to make way for the airport.

Does this mean that Đồng Nai authorities will complete their compensation plans for families affected by the construction of Long Thành Airport by late 2020?

Yes! Compensation will be completed by late 2020. We hope that compensation matters will be completed within this year and next year, we will need to worry about clearing the ground to make way for construction.

We’re well aware that if compensation is delayed to next year, we will need to deal with changes to land prices set in 2021 as well, which will likely result in disputes and complaints given there are two compensation schemes applied for different households within a single project. — VNS