Lower-cost plan for Tan Son Nhat airport expansion proposed

A state-owned consultancy has proposed adjustments to the expansion plan for Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat international airport that would result in much lower costs than one proposed by the French consultancy ADPi.
Lower-cost plan for Tan Son Nhat airport expansion proposed ảnh 1Traffic gridlock on streets leading to Tan Son Nhat airport in HCM City. The city plans to expand the airport to the south to be able to serve 50 million passengers a year (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) - A state-ownedconsultancy has proposed adjustments to the expansion plan for Ho Chi Minh City-basedTan Son Nhat international airport that would result in much lower costs thanone proposed by the French consultancy ADPi.

ADPi’s proposal to expand Tan Son Nhat airporthas been approved by the Prime Minister, but the government asked Airport Designand Construction Consultancy One Member Ltd Company (ADCC) to review ADPi’splan to see if costs could be reduced, according to Nguyen Bach Tung, Directorof ADCC.

Tung said that ADCC’s plan would keep most ofADPi’s recommendations, but would lower costs by 10.7 trillion VND (470 millionUSD) by redesigning a terminal and the airplane aprons surrounding it.

ADCC said the total investment would be 25trillion VND (1.1 billion USD), compared with 35.7 trillion VND (1.56 billionUSD) proposed by ADPi earlier.

Of the amount, ADCC proposed more than 7.6trillion VND would be used for a passenger terminal, 5.2 trillion VND for anairfield, and 3 trillion VND for a cargo terminal, with the remaining capitalwould be for other technical infrastructure. 

Tung said a park and a lake should also be builtto improve the drainage system in the northern area of the airport.

In the southern area of the airport, ADCCproposed building a passenger terminal on 120,000 sq. m. instead of 200,000 sq. m. asproposed by ADPi.

He said that the adjusted design would still beable to accommodate 20 million passengers per year.

ADCC proposed building the aprons in a morelinear manner to save land, but said the taxiway design proposed by ADPi shouldremain the same.

ADCC also proposed building more flyoversconnected to the airport to ease traffic congestion around the area.

The proposed flyovers include one from Hoang VanThu and Nguyen Van Troi streets passing over Thang Long Street and thenconnecting with Phan Thuc Dien Street.

Another flyover would be built from C12 Streetpassing over Cong Hoa and Truong Chinh streets and connecting with Le Trong TanStreet.

Dinh Viet Thang, Director of the Civil AviationAuthority of Vietnam (CAAV), agreed with ADCC’s proposal to build the newterminal on an area of 120,000 sq. m, with thecondition that it serve 20 million passengers per year. 

Thang said that other parts of the ADCC proposalshould follow those recommended by the ADPi plan, which has been approved bythe PM.

Deputy Transport Minister Le Dinh Tho said theplan to expand Tan Son Nhat must ensure minimal impact on residents and requireas little site clearance as possible.

The proposal by ADCC must be reviewed by CAAVbefore it is submitted to the Ministry of Transport, which will consult otheragencies before May 21, according to CAAV.

In late March, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucapproved the expansion of the airport to the south as proposed by ADPi afterongoing debate over whether to expand to the north or south. 

The first consultants hired by HCM Cityauthorities had proposed expanding the airport to the north.

But ADPi argued that a similar passengerterminal built to the north, instead of the south, would cost twice as much, atabout 36 trillion VND, while the terminals – old and new – would not beconnected.

Under the ADPi proposal, part of the land northof the airport, which includes a golf resort and 16ha of vacant land managed bythe Ministry of National Defence, will be used for support facilities,including a cargo terminal, aircraft repair station, and logistics services,but not until 2025.

The airport is expected to serve at least 50million passengers a year.

The Tan Son Nhat International Airport, thecountry’s busiest airport located in HCM City’s Tan Binh district, has becomeseriously overloaded, forcing many flights to wait in the air to land. 

The airport has a design capacity of 25 millionpassengers, but the passenger throughput in 2016 was 32 million and in 2017over 36 million.

Vietnam is also planning to build Long ThanhInternational Airport in the neighbouring province of Dong Nai to handle 60-70million passengers per year. It is expected to reduce overcrowding at Tan SonNhat airport.

However, the airport will not be completed until2025 or possibly even later, which experts have attributed to a lack of capitaland slow compensation progress.-VNA
VNA

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