Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam plans to pour over VND30 trillion (US$1.3 billion) into building flyover bridges, expanding roads, and constructing an elevated road to minimize traffic congestion at the gateway to the overloaded Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the municipal transport department said.
The airport, the country’s biggest and busiest, is located deep in inner Ho Chi Minh City with only one gateway on Truong Son Road. Having a maximum capacity of 26.5 million passengers a year, the hub is predicted to serve over 30 million passengers this year.
The municipal department is eyeing five projects to help alleviate traffic jams at the entrance to the airport. Among the potential projects totaling over VND30 trillion is a 9.5-kilometer elevated road linking Tan Son Nhat airport to the city’s center.
The road project is expected to be implemented in 2017 at an investment cost of VND15 trillion to VND16 trillion and is forecast to open to traffic in 2020.
An underground road tunnel is also in the pipeline, even as the airport is set to undergo renovation and expansion, including the scale-up of the facility’s land area by 21 hectares to the east, taking over land now controlled by the defense ministry.
The extra area is expected to help the 850-hectare airport accommodate 50 million passengers a year by 2025.
Rapid growth of the local aviation market in recent years, with 650 to 750 flights arriving and leaving the airport every day, has overwhelmed airports in major cities and led to regular flight delays and cancellations, local media reports said.
Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam showed that more than 20,000 flights, or 15.8% of the total, were delayed in the first six months of this year, up 15% from a year ago.
Flooded airfield
At the same time, there will be steps taken to solve the flooding inside the Tan Son Nhat airfield to prevent a repeat of the flooding that happened on August 26 and September 11 of this year.
As a temporary solution, dredging will be conducted regularly while the city works on improving the capacity of the water pumps inside the air hub.
A long-term remedy being considered is the building of a reservoir to help regulate floodwaters inside the facility, while the dredging of old sewer entrances and building of new entrances on the outskirts of the airport has commenced.
The improvement of a nearby canal is also to be carried out between 2017 and 2019.
After several changes of plans, Vietnam now aims to start building a new international airport in the southern province of Dong Nai in 2019.
Photo: Lưu Ly
