Nearly 15,000 residents in the southern province of Dong Nai will be re-settled to other areas to allow construction of Long Thanh Airport in Dong Nai Province, according to a report by the VNS news service. Site clearance compensation for the airport, to be located in Long Thanh District, will amount to a total of VND13.1 trillion (US$580 million), the Dong Nai People’s Committee has said.

Total land used by individuals and families in the project’s area amounts to 1,970 ha, accounting for 59 per cent of the land revoked for the project, according to the Dong Nai Department of Mineral Resources and Environment.

The Prime Minister has given final approval to the Airports Corporation of Viet Nam (ACV) to invest in the airport, which was initially approved by the Government in 2011. Covering a total of 5,000 hectares, the international airport will be built as an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), category 4F airport.

It is expected to handle 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo by 2025 in the first phase, which will include the construction of a runway, a terminal and auxiliary facilities. In the second and third phases, more runways and terminals will be built to bring the total capacity to 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo a year.

Total investment capital for the project is estimated at more than US$16 billion, with $5.45 billion of the figure spent in the first phase, the report said.

Project resources will be sourced from the State budget, the aviation sector’s equitisation capital, official development assistance (ODA), public-private partnership capital and other sources.