Tender for Long Thanh airport terminal extended due to tight deadline

The selection of a contractor to build the passenger terminal at Long Thanh International Airport, a key national project, is facing challenges because none of the applicants have been able to commit to meeting the construction deadline.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the main investor of Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai, which borders Ho Chi Minh City, has announced that the second bidding invitation for Package No. 5.10 “Construction and Equipment Installation for the Passenger Terminal Building” has been extended to June 12 this year instead of April 28.

The key package includes design, construction, and equipment installation for the terminal. With a total investment of VND35.23 trillion ($1.49 billion), it is the biggest package for the first phase of the airport.

It was planned to take 990 days, or 33 months, including weekends, holidays, and the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday from the effective date of the contract.

According to ACV, the extension of the bidding invitation aims to attract more capable contractors. The bidding invitation was previously rescheduled from March 28 to April 28.

In his April 18 dispatch, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh noted the slow progress of the airport's main component projects: "It is necessary to clearly identify the causes and specific responsibilities of all stakeholders and handle them in accordance with Party and State regulations. Timely measures need to be taken to accelerate the project's progress."

The PM requested the Ministry of Transport and the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises to urgently direct the assessment of ACV's project implementation capacity and clarify the responsibilities of organizations and individuals in holding the tender for Package 5.10.

The cabinet leader emphasized the need for effective and feasible plans to select a capable contractor in May 2023.

The airport project has a total estimated investment of VND336.63 trillion ($14.12 billion), with three phases. The first phase, costing VND110 trillion, will include a runway, passenger terminal and auxiliary works capable of serving 25 million passengers a year.

In the second phase, an additional runway and terminal will be built to reach a capacity of 50 million passengers a year. The remaining items will be completed in the third phase to reach a capacity of 100 million.

Work began in 2021 and the new airport is set to open in 2025. The second phase is scheduled for completion by 2050.

Covering more than 5,580 hectares in Long Thanh district, about 40 kilometers east of HCMC, the new airport is expected to help ease overloading at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC, Vietnam’s southern economic hub.

However, given the phase 1 deadline of 33 months, the airport is unlikely to open on time.

On September 24, 2022, ACV first issued tender invitations for the passenger terminal. However, when the bidding closed on November 8, it was found that related files were not qualified under Article 17 of the Law on Bidding. Thus, the corporation extended the deadline for bids to the end of November.

ACV then received only one bid from a consortium of companies: Coteccons, Vinaconex, Centra, Phuc Hung Holdings, REE, Hoa Binh Construction, and Hawee. It decided to cancel the bidding in mid-December as the dossier did not meet all the requirements.

According to ACV's deputy general director Do Tat Binh, also head of the management board of the Long Thanh International Airport project, some contractors claimed that the contract implementation time of 33 months is too short for the contractor to complete such a large package.

Therefore, ACV has extended the duration to complete the airport’s passenger terminal by six months, from 33 to 39, after consulting foreign consultants, Binh said.

Inspecting the project on March 16, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha affirmed that the Long Thanh airport is a work of the century. "Therefore, its contractors must be those who have ever done large works in the world."

He assigned ACV to take responsibility before the government for selecting capable and experienced contractors to carry out bidding packages to ensure the project quality, progress and efficiency.