Contractor for HCMC airport’s new terminal set to be named this month

The main contractor for the new T3 terminal at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City will be named this month, the Ministry of Transport said Thursday.

It said that the state-owned Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) was evaluating financial plans and would sign a deal with the main contractor for the T3 construction package this month.

The ministry conveyed this information to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh as he presided over a review meeting on key national traffic projects.

The Tan Son Nhat International Airport and Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi are Vietnam’s busiest airports.

The Long Thanh International Airport, which is under construction in Dong Nai province bordering HCMC, will become the biggest one when it is complete, reducing the current overload at Tan Son Nhat.

ACV has affirmed that bidding for the construction package for Long Thanh airport’s first terminal was conducted according to regulations.

The bidding, which resulted in consortium Vietur identified as the only one that met all technical qualifications and therefore qualified to bid in upcoming rounds, was evaluated fairly by experts and independent entities, ACV said in response to a recent complaint by Hoa Lu consortium, one of the two disqualified bidders.

The Hoa Lu consortium had petitioned Vietnamese authorities last week, claiming that Vietur had violated bidding rules and was not qualified for this package.

ACV said that the financial proposal made by Vietur, a consortium of 10 companies led by Turkey’s IC Holdings, was being evaluated and the result will be announced on August 22.

Among the nine Vietnamese companies in the consortium are Ricons, Newtecons and Sol E&C.

The Long Thanh International Airport is a mega project with a total investment of VND336.63 trillion ($14.12 billion) divided into three phases. The first phase, worth VND110 trillion, will consist of a runway, terminal and auxiliary facilities that can serve 25 million passengers per year. The project kicked off in 2021 and is expected to open in 2025.

The terminal is the largest package of the first phase, with an investment of VND35.23 trillion ($1.49 billion). It is expected to be completed in 33 months.

PM Chinh has ordered that work on the terminal must start in August.