Vietnamese Prime Minister (PM) Pham Minh Chinh on Saturday launched the construction of the new T3 terminal of Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City with an estimated investment of nearly VND11 trillion (US$466.8 million).

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the investor of the project, is committed to putting the project into operation in 2024.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the project, PM Chinh hailed relevant units for proactively removing obstacles to commence this important and meaningful project.

He said infrastructure facilities fail to keep pace with the development of the aviation sector with many local airports facing crowding, including Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

Once the terminal is completed, it will help ease congestion, increasing the capacity of the airport to 50 million passengers per year and improving the quality of aviation services.

During the execution of the project, there will surely be multiple difficulties and hindrances.

Therefore, the government chief asked the Ministry of Transport, the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises, other ministries and agencies, and the investor to ensure the quality of the project and prevent a cost overrun.

The Ministry of National Defense, the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises, and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee were assigned to proactively conduct the second phase of the handover of land for the project.

Moreover, the ACV must take the initiative in coordinating with relevant ministries and agencies to conduct the project safely and prevent corruption and irregularities.

ACV chairman Lai Xuan Thanh said Tan Son Nhat International Airport currently has a domestic passenger terminal and an international passenger terminal.

The domestic passenger terminal has a designed capacity of 15 million passengers per year. However, the actual number of passengers reaches over 26 million per year, more than 1.7 times higher than the designed capacity.

As a result, congestion is often seen in terminals and on roads in the airport area, causing inconvenience for passengers and residents and impeding the socioeconomic and tourism development in Ho Chi Minh City and adjacent provinces.

With the average growth in the air passenger number of 14.5 percent each year over the past few years, the number of passengers at the domestic terminal is forecast to double the designed capacity by 2024.

In order to meet the development demand of the aviation sector, Ho Chi Minh City, and other southern provinces in the upcoming years, the development of a new domestic passenger terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport is vital and urgent.

The T3 terminal project includes three main components: a passenger terminal, a multi-story parking lot with non-aviation services, and a viaduct system that leads to the terminal.

As for the capital for the project, 70 percent will be sourced from the ACV’s equity and the remaining from commercial loans.

The passenger terminal, covering a total floor area of 112,500 square meters, was designed to have a basement and four floors.

It will accommodate 90 counters, 20 automated baggage drop counters, 42 check-in kiosks, 27 doorways leading to aircraft, 16 baggage storage facilities, and 25 security gates.

The terminal will also have eight security gates and a lounge for VIP, business-class, and priority passengers.

“The T3 passenger terminal, once completed, will have a capacity of 20 million passengers per year,” said ACV chairman Thanh.

“The ACV pledges to execute the project within 24 months, complete it, and conduct a trial run at the end of 2024.”

On the same day, work also began on a road connecting Tran Quoc Hoan and Cong Hoa Streets in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, where the airdrome is located.

The project, whose investor is the Transportation Works Construction Investment Project Management Authority of Ho Chi Minh City (TCIP), is scheduled to be finished in 2024.

Nguyen Vinh Ninh, deputy director of the TCIP, said the road will lead to the T3 terminal of Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

When in place, it is expected to ease congestion in the airport area.

The road with a total length of over four kilometers will start at the intersection of Tran Quoc Hoan and Phan Thuc Duyen Streets and end at the intersection of C12, Cong Hoa, and Truong Chinh Streets.

It will have six lanes and a designed speed of 50 kilometers per hour.

The road will include a 988-meter-long overpass, which will have four lanes with a width of 17 meters, in front of the T3 terminal, and two tunnels, which will be developed at the Phan Thuc Duyen-Tran Quoc Hoan and Truong Chinh-Tan Ky Tan Quy intersections.

According to Ninh, besides connecting to the T3 terminal, the project, which will create a new parallel road, will reduce traffic jams on Cong Hoa and Truong Chinh Streets.

It will contribute to completing the traffic infrastructure system and reducing congestion inside and outside the airport, especially when the T3 terminal goes on stream in 2024.

The TCIP and other units are quickly completing the site clearance for 12.3 hectares of land and preparing materials.

Work on the XL9 package to build the tunnels and arrange traffic at the Phan Thuc Duyen-Tran Quoc Hoan intersection started on Saturday. Meanwhile, the remaining construction packages will be conducted in March and April next year.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Bui Xuan Cuong said the road project will contribute significantly to the infrastructure connection and congestion reduction at the airport’s gateways.

Ho Chi Minh City will also carry out projects to expand Tan Ky Tan Quy, Hoang Hoa Tham, and Truong Chinh Streets to connect traffic infrastructure systems inside and outside the airport.

The municipal leader also required the TCIP, the Department of Transport, and the Tan Binh District authorities to speed up the site clearance work and the handover of land in 2023 to complete the project in September 2024 so as to meet the rising traveling demand of local residents.

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