Long Thanh international airport (Source: VNA) As many as 4,730 households in the southern province of Dong Nai will be relocated to make room for construction of the Long Thanh international airport, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DoNRE) revealed at a meeting on October 15.
Nearly two thirds of the 15,000 affected people, who reside in Binh Son, Suoi Trau, Cam Duong, Bau Can, Long An and Long Phuoc communes in Long Thanh district, are of working age.
Most of them live on agriculture and industry, the ministry said, noting that close to 3,000 out of 5,000 hectares of land revoked for the project are being used by local families and individuals.
To offer satisfactory compensation to the families and help them quickly re-stabilise their lives was the main topic of the October 15 meeting, which was attended by officials from relevant departments, agencies and localities in Dong Nai.
At the meeting, the DoNRE urged the building of a policy framework on the compensation for and resettlement of local residents to serve as a legal basis for the work.
Dinh Quoc Thai, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, stressed the need to cautiously assess compensation options to ensure stable livelihoods for the affected residents in terms of accommodations, livelihood, education and healthcare.
As proposed, land clearance and compensation will be carried out in two phases with over 2,557 hectares of land in Binh Son, Long An, Suoi Trau and Cam Duong communes to be reclaimed first, affecting more than 1,800 households.
The total cost for this phase is estimated at around 5 trillion VND (225 million USD).
Dong Nai province has zoned off two resettlement areas north of the airport spanning 564 hectares.
The Long Thanh international airport project was approved by the National Assembly in June this year. Once completed, the airport will be able to handle 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of freight a year.
The construction is scheduled to begin in 2019 and the airport is likely to become operational by 2023.
The total cost of the three-phase project is estimated to be 336.63 trillion VND (14.95 billion USD). The project's funding is expected to come from the State budget, official development assistance (ODA), corporate investment and public-private partnership (PPP), among other resources.-VNA
