The Government has just submitted to the National Assembly the adjustment of the investment policy of Long Thanh airport project. Accordingly, the Government proposed to adjust 3 main contents.

One is to move the "take-off and landing runway number 3" from phase 3 to phase 1 (construct 2 runways in parallel).

Second, the completion time of Long Thanh airport is adjusted to the end of 2026 (instead of the previous adjustment of the third quarter of 2026), 1 year later than the National Assembly's Resolution.

Third, the proposal allows the organization to approve the feasibility study report to adjust phase 1 of the project under its authority without having to report to the National Assembly for approval.

w long thanh airport 5 51476.jpg
Thousands of workers and engineers are working tirelessly through the night at the Long Thanh airport construction site (Long Thanh district, Dong Nai ). Photo: Nguyen Hue

The reason for amending the above contents, according to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, is that at the time of submitting the project investment policy for approval, determining the capital source for phase 1 was still difficult.

Therefore, the National Assembly decided that in phase 1, only one runway will be built in the northern region. In case runway 1 has an accident, Tan Son Nhat airport will play a supporting role.

During the implementation process, Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV) realized that building runway No. 3 right next to runway No. 1 (400m to the north) and putting it into synchronous operation would bring many benefits.

In case of an accident on Highway 1, Tan Son Nhat Airport will be overloaded, planes will have to wait in the air, incurring additional costs and environmental impacts.

The Government affirmed that investing in “runway number 3” in phase 1 has many advantages such as: being consistent with the port planning approved by the Prime Minister; the land has been cleared and handed over to ACV, saving costs and construction time, etc.

The preparation and implementation of the investment in “runway number 3” is expected to take 24 months, of which the preparation time is about 12 months and the construction time is about 12 months. If the National Assembly approves the adjustment at the 8th session, the runway number 3 will be completed by the end of 2026.

Previously, the National Assembly approved the investment policy in Resolution No. 94, phase 1 of the Long Thanh airport project will be completed and put into operation in 2025. The implementation process encountered some objective and subjective difficulties, so it could not be completed on schedule.

The reason is that the architectural competition and preparation and approval of phase 1 are prolonged; the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down progress, especially in mobilizing foreign experts to Vietnam to carry out technical design.

In particular, ACV had to conduct two bidding rounds to select a contractor with the capacity and experience to implement package 5.2 "Construction and installation of equipment for the Passenger Terminal project"...

To complete the entire phase 1 of the project, including runway 3, the Government proposed that the National Assembly allow adjusting the implementation time of phase 1 to the end of 2026.

When giving opinions on this content, the State Appraisal Council said that the council members agreed with the need to adjust the investment policy according to the Government's proposal. Organizing the exploitation of runways 1 and 3 will help increase the exploitation capacity of Long Thanh airport in phase 1 to 40 - 50 million passengers/year.

The Ministry of Transport also said that the foundation of runway 3 has been basically leveled to the design elevation, only needing to build the road surface structure and install equipment to be able to exploit. Therefore, the investment cost for the additional item is about 3,304 billion VND, used from post-bidding savings and contingency funds, so it does not exceed the total investment of 99,019 billion VND of component project 3 implemented by ACV.

Thus, with no increase in investment costs, the port's capacity and operational efficiency increase, contributing to improving the investment efficiency of phase 1 and phase 2 of the project.

Construction works overnight at Long Thanh airport construction site

Construction works overnight at Long Thanh airport construction site

Thousands of workers and engineers are working tirelessly through the night at the Long Thanh airport construction site (Long Thanh district, Dong Nai). Important items such as the passenger terminal, runway, and taxiway are being accelerated.
Appearance of the 3,500 billion VND air traffic control tower at Long Thanh airport

Appearance of the 3,500 billion VND air traffic control tower at Long Thanh airport

The air traffic control tower, the critical path of the Long Thanh airport component 2 project, has a height of 123m and is considered the "brain" that ensures many activities of the airport.
Proposal to delay the completion time of Long Thanh airport phase 1 to 2026

Proposal to delay the completion time of Long Thanh airport phase 1 to 2026

The Ministry of Transport has just submitted a document to the Prime Minister on adjusting the investment policy of the Long Thanh International Airport project.