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The request was made last week by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, according to a Government Office announcement.
Of the 2,532 hectares of land earmarked for the first phase of the Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City, project contractors have received 2,459 hectares.
The airport’s investor, the state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), said that of the total 5,000 hectares needed for the entire project, more than 4,700 ha have been cleared and transferred.
With the first phase of airport operations scheduled to launch in 2025, tardy site clearance has slowed down construction of the cargo terminal, the delivery depot, the aircraft cleaning area, and the ground equipment maintenance zone.
The first phase of construction will complete a runway, taxiways, terminals and several ancillary items to allow the airport to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo per year.
The slow progress of site clearance has been mainly caused by issues related to the resettlement of affected families.
Many families living in areas designated for the airport project do not have papers proving legal ownership of their houses and land, making it difficult to complete compensation and relocation procedures.
The government has more than once pushed Dong Nai to complete site clearance for the airport project.
Last October, the government said in a letter sent to the National Assembly that it has asked Dong Nai authorities to issue land use certificates so that affected families can move out from the construction site soon.
Work started on Long Thanh airport in early 2021. A year after work began, only fencing and demining had been completed, drawing criticism from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
Costing an estimated $16 billion, Long Thanh is designed to serve 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo per year.
Once operational, the airport would replace HCMC's Tan Son Nhat International Airport as the largest and busiest airport in Vietnam.
