Consider investment options to expand Phu Cat airport

Need to build a second runway

According to the Ministry of Transport, in the Phu Cat Airport Planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, to meet the planned capacity and ensure regular military operations, the Ministry of Transport has planned to arrange an additional runway 2 to the West to operate civil aviation relatively independently from the military.

The Ministry of Transport supports the implementation of the Phu Cat airport expansion project into 3 suitable projects.

At the same time, arrange the civil aviation area to the South (the area of ​​existing military facilities) to facilitate traffic connection, limiting the impact on each other between the civil and military aviation areas.

Therefore, the Ministry of Transport believes that the investment implementation plan proposed by the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province is consistent with the Phu Cat Airport Planning approved by the Ministry of Transport. The implementation into 3 projects is consistent with the nature and necessary investment roadmap of these works.

Previously, the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province submitted a proposal to the Government to approve the investment plan for Phu Cat Airport, including the following items: Construction of runway No. 2, connecting taxiways and other works in the airport area; Construction and relocation of military works to hand over land for the expansion of the civil aviation area; Construction of the civil aviation area.

In the immediate phase, investment is allowed to be immediately deployed in the construction of runway No. 2, connecting taxiways and other works in the airport area, with a total investment of about 3,013 billion VND (compensation and site clearance value of about 1,008 billion VND), to meet the socio-economic development needs of the locality.

At the same time, it is proposed that the Government submit to the National Assembly for approval a special mechanism to assign the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to organize the investment in the construction of runway No. 2 and other works in the airport area from the budget capital managed by the province (including central support capital of about 1,500 billion VND).

Phu Cat Airport was built by the US in the 1960s and 1970s and was an important base for the US-puppet Air Force. In 1975, when the country was unified, the airport was used as a base for the Vietnamese Air Force.

Phu Cat Airport is located in an area with an important strategic position in terms of defense and security in the South Central Coast and Central Highlands regions. It is also an important military base in the national defense system, so there are regular military activities here and most of the land is managed by the Ministry of National Defense.

In 1985, Phu Cat Airport began operating civil aviation activities and became Phu Cat Airport. The airport has 1 concrete runway, currently under the management of the Ministry of National Defense.

After about 60 years of use (almost 3 times longer than the design life), most of the concrete slabs are now cracked, with the risk of debris causing unsafe operations. The low load capacity only ensures the operation of reduced-load aircraft such as A320/321 and equivalent.

Given the above situation, the Ministry of Transport believes that it is necessary to repair, renovate and upgrade this runway. However, since this is a concrete runway, the airport must be closed for a long period of time (not less than 6 months) to repair, renovate and upgrade.

"Closing Phu Cat Airport will not ensure the combat readiness of military units, and will also greatly affect tourism and socio-economic development of Binh Dinh province," said the leader of the Ministry of Transport, adding that when planning Phu Cat Airport for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, the Ministry of Transport agreed with the Ministry of National Defense and the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to study the planning of runway 2 for the port to invest in construction to ensure safe and effective civil aviation operations, while also keeping runway 1 ready to serve military units in combat. Runway 2 is also ready to serve military units when needed.

Therefore, the proposal of the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to allow immediate investment in runway 2, connecting taxiways and synchronous technical infrastructure works is considered necessary and suitable for the situation of Phu Cat Airport.

There is no specific mechanism for using local budgets to invest in airport infrastructure.

Regarding the plan to use capital to invest in runway 2, the Ministry of National Defense has sent a document to the Ministry of Transport requesting to make public investment using the State budget.

In case the state budget cannot meet the demand in time, research investment options using other legal capital sources in accordance with the provisions of the law on investment and land on the basis of ensuring national defense tasks.

Currently, the Ministry of Transport is also studying two investment options for runway number 2 at Phu Cat Airport.

Option 1, Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV) organize investment implementation.

In this option, the Ministry of Transport said that the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025 from the central budget assigned by the competent authority to the Ministry of Transport focuses on prioritizing the development of key national transport projects according to the 10-year socio-economic development strategy 2021-2030 and the National Assembly's Resolutions. Therefore, the Ministry of Transport is not able to balance capital to invest in this project.

ACV is also focusing capital to invest in major, key aviation projects such as the construction of Long Thanh International Airport, construction of Terminal T3 at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, and expansion of Terminal T2 at Noi Bai International Airport.

According to the Ministry of Transport, airports make a very important contribution to tourism and socio-economic development of localities, so recently, many localities have wanted to contribute with the central budget to invest in developing airports.

Therefore, in the Project "Orientation for mobilizing social capital to invest, manage and exploit airport infrastructure", the Ministry of Transport proposed that competent authorities allow the development of specific policies to use local budgets to participate in investing in airport infrastructure. Currently, the Ministry of Transport has completed the project and reported to the Prime Minister.

According to the plan, the Ministry of Transport will submit it to the competent authority by the end of August 2024. After the project is approved by the competent authority, the Ministry of Transport will propose specific policies to the Government to report to the National Assembly for approval at the end of 2024 session, as a basis for implementation.

ACV has also been carrying out the task of investing in upgrading airports in remote areas such as Dien Bien, Ca Mau... so the ability to continue balancing capital to invest in this project is very difficult.

Option 2 will be implemented by the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province. However, according to current regulations, there is not enough basis for the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to use the local budget to invest in this project.

According to the report, the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province is ready to allocate about 1,513 billion VND (of which about 1,008 billion VND is for site clearance) to invest in this project and proposes to support about 1,500 billion VND from the central budget.

Regarding this, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has commented that the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025 has fully allocated the central budget to ministries, central agencies and localities. For the period 2026-2030, the competent authority has not yet issued principles, criteria and norms for the use of state budget capital.

The Prime Minister has not yet issued a Directive on the preparation of a medium-term public investment plan for the 2026-2030 period and announced the total estimated public investment capital to ministries, central agencies and localities. Therefore, there is no basis for considering and reporting to competent authorities to support a part of the construction investment costs for the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to implement the investment.

As for the two projects, the Project to move military structures to hand over land for the construction of the expanded civil aviation area and the Project to build a civil aviation area, The Ministry of Transport agrees with the proposal of Binh Dinh province to implement these two projects later because of the large investment capital demand and the need for a lot of time to carry out procedures related to the demolition, relocation, compensation, and construction of military structures to the north of the port.

Mobilizing social capital to invest in the construction of civil aviation areas will be studied after the Project "Orientation for mobilizing social capital to invest, manage and exploit airport infrastructure" of the Ministry of Transport is approved by competent authorities.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Phu Cat Airport is one of the areas affected by Agent Orange dioxin contamination after the war.

The Ministry of National Defense is planning to implement a project to treat dioxin-contaminated soil in this area. The arrangement of the area for construction of military facilities at the new location must meet the requirements when there are survey, monitoring and assessment results that clearly show no risk of dioxin exposure; construction can only be implemented after the soil treatment has been completed and assessed as safe.

From here, the Ministry of Transport supports the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to organize investment in the construction of runway No. 2 and other works in the airport area.

The Ministry of Transport recommends that the Prime Minister, while waiting for a specific policy allowing the use of local budgets to invest in airport infrastructure, allow the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to study and implement investment preparation procedures and other necessary procedures in advance to carry out site clearance work according to the plan using local capital.

During the preparation process, Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee closely coordinated with military units on land issues and dioxin treatment in this area (if any).

At the same time, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to study and balance capital sources, and promptly advise the Government to allocate about 1,500 billion VND from the central budget to the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province to support the implementation of this project. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of National Defense are assigned to direct relevant units to guide and support Binh Dinh province to remove obstacles in the process of preparing and implementing the project.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/can-nhac-phuong-an-dau-tu-mo-rong-san-bay-phu-cat-192240730214541912.htm