HCM City urges work on roads surrounding airport

The projects have faced delays in site clearance and compensation, the committee said last week.

The expansion project for Hoang Hoa Tham street, with investment capital of 255 billion VND (10.8 million USD), is still waiting for land to start construction, according to the city’s Department of Transport. 

The People’s Committee of Tan Binh district, where the airport is located, said the value of land owned by the Ministry of Defense near the airport must be assessed first before the land is reclaimed. 

If the district committee hands over the land in the third quarter, construction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020.

Similarly, the project to upgrade the 134-metre-long and 14-19 metre-wide Cong Hoa street, with total capital of 142 billion VND (6.12 million USD), is also waiting for site clearance. 

If Tan Binh district hands over the land in the third quarter, the project will begin in the second quarter of 2020, according to the transport department. 

Other ongoing projects, including Truong Chinh street and Tan Ky Tan Quy street expansion, are still waiting for capital to implement other phases of the projects.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the city People’s Committee, said that expansion of roads around the airport and the airport’s connecting roads need to be done concurrently. 

Districts and agencies have been asked to speed up implementation and inform the city of any problems. 

As for issues within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, the city government will report to the central government for further guidelines.

Since the projects use the city’s state budget funds, implementation must be transparent so that qualified contractors can be hired and new technologies used to ensure work quality. Environmental hygiene must also be assured, the city said.

Under a plan approved by the Ministry of Transport to expand the airport to serve 50 million passengers per year by 2020, roads to the airport are expected to be built as soon as possible.

The ministry has asked the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to work with agencies and localities to implement the plan. 

The Tan San Nhat International Airport, the country’s busiest airport, has become seriously overloaded both on the ground and in the air, forcing many flights to wait in the air to land. 

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