PM Pham Minh Chinh inspects progress of the project. (Photo: VNA)

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on January 29 asked the southern province of Dong Nai to complete the handover of cleared ground for the first-stage construction of Long Thanh international airport by the end of this first quarter.

During a working session with ministries, agencies, localities and stakeholders of the project after making a fact-finding trip earlier the same day to the construction site, he assigned them to responsibility for the work under their watch and solve existing issues.

The Government has directed the establishment of a working group led by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha to oversee and speed up the project, PM Chinh revealed.

At the construction site, he asked ministries, agencies, localities and investor to hasten the implementation of the project, with quality guaranteed.

Covering a total area of more than 5,580 hectares, the Long Thanh international airport will spread across six communes in Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province. The airport’s total investment is 336.63 trillion VND (14.6 billion USD), with construction divided into three phases.

In the first phase, a runway and one passenger terminal along with other supporting facilities will be built at a cost of 109.112 trillion VND to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo each year.

The project started in 2021. Once fully completed by 2050, the airport will be able to handle 100 million passengers and 5 million tonnes of cargo annually.

Located 40km east of Ho Chi Minh City, the airport is expected to relieve overloading at Tan Son Nhat international airport in the southern metropolis, now the country’s largest airport.