Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee submitted documents to the Ministry of Transport expressing support of the construction of Long Thanh International Airport in HCM City’s neighbouring province Dong Nai.

Currently, Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City, the biggest international airport in the south of Vietnam, is running at maximum capacity as the flow of tourists to the south increases every year. The airport would need to expand its terminal to accommodate the 50 million passengers expected each year in the near future.

However, the expansion of Tan Son Nhat airport would cause a number of problems, including traffic congestion, noise pollution and the limitation of urban expansion.

Therefore, the city’s People’s Committee concluded that the expansion of Tan Son Nhat airport is not a viable option, stating that city authorities unanimously support the construction of Long Thanh international airport in Dong Nai province in an effort to alleviate traffic congestion at Tan Son Nhat airport and support the economic development of Dong Nai.

HCM City asked the Ministry of Transport to launch the Long Thanh airport project as soon as possible. The proposal also recommended the building of the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh railway line to ease the burden on the HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway scheduled to become operational late 2014.-VNA