The National Assembly (NA) on June 19 passed a resolution separating compensation, site clearance and resettlement from Long Thanh International Airport project to boost the pace of airport construction.
The National Assembly (NA) on June 19 passed a resolution separating compensation, site clearance and resettlement from Long Thanh International Airport project to boost the pace of airport construction.
Resettlement and site clearance compensation for the project, including building infrastructure for two resettlement areas and a cemetery, will need over VND23 trillion (over US$1 billion). However, the amount allocated by the State budget for these components until 2020 is only VND5,000 billion, or 21.7% of the total need.
Chairman of the NA Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said before the NA approved the resolution that the Government would assign relevant agencies to conduct feasibility studies for those components and map out a site clearance plan to report to the NA.
Such studies will verify the capital need for each component and relevant issues which will be reported by the Prime Minister to the National Assembly, Thanh said. He said the construction of Long Thanh airport has become urgent now given rising overload at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
“The overload at Tan Son Nhat International Airport and the increasing demand for air travel have made the Long Thanh International Airport project more vital,” Thanh told the NA.
However, because site clearance requires a lot of time and money, the NA Standing Committee agreed to separate site clearance, compensation and resettlement from the airport project and treat them as sub-projects to facilitate their implementation.
Long Thanh International Airport is a project of national importance, and will be able to handle 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo a year when in full service.
The project is divided into three stages. In stage one, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, a runway and a passenger terminal along with other auxiliary facilities will be developed, with a capacity of 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo a year.
The resolution helps create consistent policies for site clearance, compensation and resettlement for Long Thanh airport. Besides, one-time site clearance and resettlement for the whole project will help people in the areas affected by the project settle down soon.
The NA Standing Committee has required relevant agencies to effectively handle the areas to be cleared to avoid illegal encroachment, and enclose the plan of making use of free land with the feasibility study.
The Long Thanh International Airport project was approved by the NA in June 2015. Its total cost is estimated at VND336.6 trillion (US$16.03 billion), with the first stage requiring VND114.45 trillion.
(Source:SGT)
