HANOI: More than VND13.1 trillion (US$573.62 million) will be needed for site clearance for Long Thanh Airport, which will be the biggest in Vietnam, a local news website reported Monday.
Tuoi Tre Online quoted authorities in the southern province of Dong Nai, where the airport is to be built, as saying that the project requires nearly 4,000 hectares, or 9,880 acres of land. Nearly 15,000 people and many religious and business buildings will be affected, authorities said. With a projected cost of $15.8 billion, the project will officially start in 2019.
When its first stage is completed four years after, the airport will be able to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of goods a year. It will achieve its maximum capacity — 100 million passengers and 5 million tons of goods annually, after the second and third stages.
Vietnamese authorities want Long Thanh to replace the country’s currently biggest airport Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, as the latter already reached its designed capacity of 20 million passengers a year in 2013.
