Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has okayed the hiring of foreign consultants who will conduct studies on the expansion of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.
The move is in line with the provisions of the country’s law on bidding pertaining to the hiring of international consultants for special cases, reported Vietnam News Agency.
Ho Chi Minh City authorities had previously asked the prime minister to allow special treatment to be applied to the hiring process to shorten the selection period from 12 months down to six.
The overseas consultants will be asked to build plans for the airport’s expansion with no limitations placed on land use.
Earlier this year, the government gave the green light for the expansion project after the Ministry of Defense finally agreed to clear some of its operations out of the airport.
The defense ministry has stopped construction of a golf course being built on a military plot adjacent to the airport and handed over 21 hectares of land south of the airport for the construction of a runway, two terminals, and extra aircraft aprons.
The Ministry of Transport will chair the selection of foreign consultants according to the country’s legal regulations, said the report.
The ministry is also tasked to decide on the use of funding, to be sourced by state-owned Vietnam Airports Corporation, with advice from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Finance.
The transport ministry must submit its report to the government in December 2017.
Tan Son Nhat airport, the nation’s busiest airport, handled 32.5 million passengers in 2016, exceeding its designed capacity of 25 million passengers. Once the expansion is finished, the airport is expected to increase its capacity to up to 45 million passengers per year.
In the meantime, it remains necessary to accelerate construction of the planned Long Thanh International Airport, which is located in the neighboring province of Dong Nai, the Prime Minister said.
In recent years, strong growth in air travel has left Tan Son Nhat, the only airport serving Ho Chi Minh City, severely overloaded, with Vietnam now aiming to begin building Long Thanh airport in 2019 to ease the pressure on the main hub.
Photo: Lưu Ly
