An estimated 3.2 trillion VND (147.4 million USD) is needed to build anew terminal at Da Nang International Airport in Da Nang central city.
As proposed by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the project will be developed by a group of investors.
Thetransport ministry on May 12 accepted the ACV's proposal to set up ajoint stock company to build the terminal. It comprises the ACV, whichwill contribute 10 percent of the total investment capital, Thang LongAir Services Corporation, AOV Investment Corporation, and HanoiConstruction Corporation.
The construction of the terminal isscheduled to start in January next year at the latest and is expected tobe completed by June 2017.
Spread across 40,000sq.m., the newterminal is expected to serve 2.3 million international visitors to DaNang by 2022 and four million passengers by 2030.
The new terminal will come up next to the existing terminal. It will be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis.
Theinvestors proposed the terminal's construction after the ministrycalled upon organisations and individuals to invest in theinfrastructures of railways, airports, and roads.
TransportMinister Dinh La Thang said at a meeting held on May 12 that it isessential to build the new terminal to meet the rapidly increasingnumber of passengers to Da Nang, particularly since the opening of moreair routes to Da Nang.
Director General of the ACV Le Manh Hungnoted that the existing terminal at Da Nang airport was designed tohandle a maximum of 6 million passengers per year. However, as of 2014,it was serving 5 million passengers per year.
With 14.5 percent annual growth rate of passengers, the terminal will be overloaded this year, he said.
TheACV had plans to increase the capacity of the existing terminal to 8million passengers per year, but that could have met passenger rush onlyfor the next three years and the airport would have again becomeoverloaded, he added.
The existing terminal at Da NangInternational Airport was built on 14,400sq.m. The four-storey terminal,constructed on an investment capital of more than 1.3 trillion VND(over 59 million USD), became operational in 2010, with the capacity tohandle four million passengers annually.-VNA