HCM City (VNS/VNA) - TheHCM City People’s Committee has urged completion of key road projects near the Tan Son Nhat International Airportin the city to alleviate traffic congestion.

The projects have faceddelays in site clearance and compensation, the committee said last week.

The expansion project for Hoang Hoa Tham street, with investmentcapital of 255 billion VND (10.8 million USD), is still waiting for land to start construction, according to thecity’s Department of Transport. 

The People’s Committee of Tan Binh district, where the airport is located, said the value of land owned bythe Ministry of Defense near the airport must be assessed first before the landis reclaimed. 

If the district committeehands over the land in the third quarter, construction is expected to becompleted in the second quarter of 2020.

Similarly, the project toupgrade the 134-metre-long and 14-19 metre-wide Cong Hoa street, with total capital of 142 billion VND (6.12 million USD), is also waiting for site clearance. 

If Tan Binh district hands over the land in the third quarter, the project will beginin the second quarter of 2020, according to the transportdepartment. 

Other ongoingprojects, including Truong Chinh street and Tan Ky Tan Quy street expansion, are still waiting for capital to implement other phasesof the projects.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the city People’s Committee, said that expansion ofroads around the airport and the airport’s connecting roads need to be doneconcurrently. 

Districts and agencies havebeen asked to speed up implementation and inform the city of anyproblems. 

As for issues within thejurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, the city government will report to thecentral government for further guidelines.

Since the projects use thecity’s state budget funds, implementation must be transparent so that qualifiedcontractors can be hired and new technologies used to ensure work quality.Environmental hygiene must also be assured, the city said.

Under a plan approved bythe Ministry of Transport to expand the airport to serve 50 million passengersper year by 2020, roads to the airport are expected to be built as soon aspossible.

The ministry has asked theCivil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to work with agencies and localities to implement the plan. 

The Tan San Nhat International Airport, the country’s busiest airport, has becomeseriously overloaded both on the ground and in the air, forcing many flights towait in the air to land. 

The airport has a designcapacity of 25 million passengers, but the passenger throughput in 2016 was 32million and over 36 million in 2017.-VNS/VNA