Residents to make way for Long Thanh Airport

Nearly 15,000 residents in the southern province of Dong Nai will be re-settled to other areas to allow construction of Long Thanh Airport in Dong Nai province.

Site clearance compensation for the airport, to be located in Long Thanh district, will amount to a total of 13.1 trillion VND (about 580 million USD), the Dong Nai People's Committee has said.

Total land used by individuals and families in the project's area amounts to 1,970 ha, accounting for 59 percent of the land revoked for the project, according to the Dong Nai Department of Mineral Resources and Environment.

A spokesman for the department said some 30 households who previously rejected the resettlement plan had agreed to move.

More than 1,920 ha of land used by enterprises, religious works and offices of Government agencies will also be revoked for implementation of the project.

The Prime Minister has given final approval to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to invest in the airport, which was initially approved by the Government in 2011.

Covering a total of 5,000 hectares, the international airport will be built as a category 4F airport in line with standard codes of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

It is expected to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo by 2025 in the first phase, which will include the construction of a runway, a terminal and auxiliary facilities.

In the second and third phases, more runways and terminals will be built to bring the total capacity to 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo a year.

Total investment capital for the project is estimated at more than 16 billion USD, with 5.45 billion USD of the figure spent in the first phase.

Project resources will be sourced from the State budget, the aviation sector's equitisation capital, official development assistance (ODA), public-private partnership capital and other sources in line with the law.-VNA