Minister of Transport: 'Expanding Tan Son Nhat to the North is not feasible'

Land clearance costs, noise pollution... are the reasons why expanding Tan Son Nhat airport to the North is difficult to implement.

Discussing compensation, support, and resettlement for the Long Thanh International Airport project on June 8, National Assembly delegate from Ho Chi Minh City Tran Anh Tuan said that it would be difficult to ensure progress for the project by 2025.

Meanwhile, according to him, the pressure on Tan Son Nhat airport in the coming time is very large, and even if this airport is expanded according to the plan that the Government intends to implement, it will not be able to meet the demand for passenger transportation.

"In my opinion, we need to focus resources on speeding up the expansion of Tan Son Nhat airport to meet the capacity of 43-45 million passengers per year. At the same time, we need to eliminate the image of a spacious golf course next to a cluttered, congested airport," Mr. Tuan suggested.

Delegate Tran Anh Tuan.

Agreeing with delegate Tuan, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam said that currently, city residents are not assured and dissatisfied with the way land in Tan Son Nhat airport is used."Transparency and consensus among the people are not yet available," said Ms. Quyet Tam.

Commenting, Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia said,The plan to expand Tan Son Nhat airport to the North is completely unfeasible for many reasons: land clearance costs, noise pollution and many other problems.

Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia.

According to Minister Nghia, the most feasible and economical option chosen to expand Tan Son Nhat is to build an additional T4 terminal with a capacity of 10-15 million passengers, which would increase the total capacity of the airport to about 40-43 million passengers per year. In this expansion option,taxiways and apronsdetermined to finish before Tet 2018; station progress will be completed in 2019

"Despite the expansion, by around 2022, Tan Son Nhat will reach its maximum capacity, meaning that this airport cannot handle the current passenger growth rate," said Minister Nghia.

In late February, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung chairedmeeting to review plans to adjust planning, expand and upgrade Tan Son Nhat airport.

Among the options put forward, two are for expansion to the North. OneTo be,Constructing a new runway No. 3 to the north of the golf course, 1,800 m from runway 25R/07L; constructing two new terminals and auxiliary works on the golf course land. This project has a total investment of up to 201,350 billion VND.

Second,not build new runways but onlyConstruction of terminal, technical works in the North of the taxiway including apron, technical service area and T4 terminal with a capacity of 20 million passengers/year, renovation of runway 25R/07L. The total investment of the project is 61,590 billion VND.

Apart from the above two options, the option that is considered suitable isConstruction of passenger terminal T4, with a capacity of 10 million passengers per year, in the southern area of ​​the airport and carrying out a number of other renovations...Because it uses the army's available land fund, implementing this plan will only cost about 19,700 billion VND.

Currently, the consulting unit is completing related plans.to report to the Prime Minister and the Government Standing Committee for comments based on careful consideration of all factors.

According to VNE