Synchronizing the infrastructure system connected to Long Thanh Airport

The Highway Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay is an important traffic connection of Long Thanh Airport, so it should be invested and expanded soon.

Not letting the big “infrastructure difference” between inside and outside of the airport happen

The construction investment project of Long Thanh Airport phase 1 has been officially started in early 2021. According to the plan, by the end of 2025, the project will be completed and put into operation. In order to ensure that the construction project of Long Thanh Airport phase 1 is completed on schedule, during the past, the Ministry of Transport has urged the investor to complete the works as planned.

For the component 3 project, the investor is the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), which has started demining in November 2020. Up to now, demining work has carried out about 65% of the handed-over area and is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. Along with that, ACV has also completed about 5.7 on 8.6 kilometers of fence wall and 6.5 on 8.6 kilometers of wall fence foundation (reaching 71.81% by volume). The fence construction is expected to be completed in September 2021. The technical design and leveling work for the passenger terminal area and the airport apron have also been basically completed and will begin construction in November 2021.

As for the passenger terminal, construction is expected to begin in February 2022 and be completed in June 2025; construction items of the garage, cargo terminal No. 1, maintenance areas, etc. are underway to select a basic design contractor, expected to complete the design in December 2022. The technical design of infrastructure (airport works, internal port traffic system, technical infrastructure of electricity, water, telecommunications, etc.) is being carried out by ACV for selecting technical design contractors, ensuring the progress of starting the project in 2022, completing in June 2025.

Similarly, according to the Ministry of Transport, the remaining component projects are currently being implemented on schedule to ensure they are put into operation by the end of 2025.

According to the design, in the first phase, Long Thanh Airport will have a capacity of 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo per year. Therefore, in order to be able to exploit Long Thanh Airport, the infrastructure system as well as the accompanying services outside the airport must also be synchronously invested, especially the connecting traffic infrastructure system.

As for the road system, there are 4 expressways and Ring Road no.4 will act as a connection for Long Thanh Airport. Along with that, the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh light rail will also take care of the connection between Long Thanh Airport and the center of Ho Chi Minh City.

On the Dong Nai Province side, to ensure connectivity for Long Thanh Airport as well as to better exploit the development potentials that this project brings, the province has also planned to invest in upgrading roads in the near future, like road 25B, 25C.

Mr. Nguyen Bon- Deputy Director of the Department of Transport- said that along with the above two routes, the Department of Transport has also submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval to invest in upgrading and opening four new routes with the center is Long Thanh Airport. These routes will contribute to completing and synchronizing the transport infrastructure system serving the operation of Long Thanh Airport when the construction is completed.

According to Mr. Cao Tien Dung- Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, in order to promote the advantages of Long Thanh Airport, the issue of infrastructure connectivity is very important. Because without infrastructure, the airport cannot be promoted. With the time until the 1st phase of Long Thanh Airport is completed and put into operation is no longer long, according to Mr. Cao Tien Dung- Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the current problem is to allocate resources for early deployment projects. "It is very necessary to outline a specific working schedule, it would be a big problem if the infrastructure inside the airport are fully completed while the outside has nothing" - Mr. Cao Tien Dung- Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized.

The Ring Road No. 4 through the province has an end point at Thu Bien Bridge, which plays an important role in connecting traffic for Long Thanh Airport.

Actively implementing projects

According to Mr. Cao Tien Dung- Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, for the system of provincial roads that play the key role of traffic connection for Long Thanh Airport, Dong Nai has now also calculated resources for implementation. Similarly, with national transport projects acting as a connection for this airport, Dong Nai will also actively coordinate in implementation to ensure progress.

Among the highways that play the role of traffic connection for Long Thanh Airport, at present, the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway has been completed and put into operation. Two other expressways of Phan Thiet - Dau Giay and Ben Luc - Long Thanh have also been constructed and are expected to be completed in 2022 and 2023. Particularly for the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway, in September, the Prime Minister also approved the investment policy of phase 1 of the project. Thus, for the connecting infrastructure system for Long Thanh Airport, currently only the Ring Road No. 4 and the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh light rail have not been "started".

With the goal of "no longer waiting", for these two projects, Dong Nai is currently considering a plan to coordinate and implement soon to synchronously exploit when Long Thanh Airport phase 1 completes construction.

Leader of the Provincial People's Committee said that, when Long Thanh - Thu Thiem light rail is completed, it will be a perfect solution to the transportation problem between the airport and Ho Chi Minh City. Similarly, the Ring Road No. 4 already has a number of investors looking for and expressing their desire to invest. In terms of traffic connection, Ring Road No. 4 plays a very important role as it can directly connect from Long Thanh Airport to the Southeast provinces such as Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Ho Chi Minh City as well as other Southwest provinces  like Long An, etc.

With that importance, Mr. Cao Tien Dung - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that the Provincial People's Committee is currently consulting the Provincial Party Standing Committee, to agree that Dong Nai will stand to recognize as a competent state agency to actively implement the two projects mentioned above in the form of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investment. “Projects have to speed up to meet the progress of Long Thanh Airport. It cannot wait until 2025 to start implementing, it won't be in time," Mr. Cao Tien Dung- Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee  emphasized.