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The contractor is spraying water to reduce dust flying in the air when building Long Thanh International Airport (Photo: SGGP) |
Director Le Quyet Tien informed that at present, the Transport Ministry is working with the provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Long An, and HCMC to pour investments in traffic construction projects to connect to Long Thanh International Airport. With the current speed, the building of T1 and T2 routes, Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway, Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway, and HCMC Ring Road No.3 will basically complete in 2025 and go into operation in 2026, in compliance with the Prime Minister’s direction.
The newly constructed routes, along with HCMC – Long Thanh Dau Giay Expressway, Phan Thiet – Dau Giay Expressway, National Highway No.51, and other minor routes, will form a dense traffic network between Long Thanh International Airport and HCMC as well as the Southern and Southern-Central provinces.
Explaining the tardiness in Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway project and Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway project, Director Tien said that the Transport Ministry has determinedly cooperate with the Committee for State Budget Management at Businesses and VEC to develop feasible measures for the allocation of VEC’s capital for the reciprocal amount and the one to finish the remaining parts of the former’s project.
Until now, the capital source for that project has been basically solved; however, since it has been stopped for too long and certain contractors have terminated their contracts, it is necessary to organize bidding sessions to select new ones, which might take much time. The contractors that have maintained their contracts are asked to resume their work and accelerate the progress to complete the whole project in the third quarter of 2025.
The latter’s project has its sub-project investors finish essential procedures for the groundbreaking ceremony in time with the Prime Minister’s direction. The expressway should be in operation in 2026 in synchrony with other traffic projects in the area.
Discussing the possibility of finalizing the construction project of Thu Thiem – Long Thanh Light Rail and the expansion project of HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway in time with the operation of Long Thanh International Airport, the Director shared that VEC is studying investment measures and has sent a corresponding report to the Committee for State Budget Management at Businesses, mentioning the total capital being VND15 trillion (US$637.7 million exclusive of loan interest amounts).
It is expected that by the first quarter of 2024, the projects will have their feasibility report preparation finished and approved. In the last quarter of that year, suitable construction contractors will be selected to start the work at the beginning of 2025. They are planned to complete simultaneously with the second stage of Long Thanh International Airport project.
Finally, talking about the current challenges when carrying out traffic projects to link to the airport as well as the responsibilities of stakeholders and the Transport Ministry, the local authorities, Director Tien stated that as to T1 route, T2 route, and Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway projects, the most troublesome issue now is land clearance tasks, which are done extremely slowly. Besides, the construction materials are rather limited due to low exploitation capacity, and thus only satisfying the local needs.
If this exploitation task keeps the current speed, the progress of the above projects will be harmfully affected. Meanwhile, the People’s Committees of provinces must be responsible for the management and coordination of the land clearance task. Nevertheless, lately, as a specialized management unit, the Transport Ministry has collaborated with these committees to speed up the land clearance task while checking material mines to timely handle any arisen trouble so as to ensure the construction progress.
