Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai investigating the navigation channel and port locations on Sai Gon and Thi Vai rivers

By Chinhphu.vn - 16/05/2009

On 16 May, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai headed the Government Task Force to investigate the navigation channel and planned port locations on Sai Gon and Thi Vai rivers and to survey investment preparation and implementation of port removal project out of Ho Chi Minh city inner.

At the head office of Portcoast, The Deputy Prime Minister worked with Ministry of Transport, Vietnam Maritime administration and listened to the report on preparation and implementation of Vietnam sea port system Masterplan - phase 2020 - 2030, especially detailed planning of port groups 5, 6, 7, 8 and removal plan of port system and shipbuilding yards on Sai Gon river.

After that passing Soai Rap navigation channel (Binh Khanh section), Long Tau channel, Cai Mep, Thi Vai, the Deputy Prime Minister directly investigated locations and implementations of Hiep Phuoc, Phu Huu 1, Cai Mep, Thi Vai, My Xuan, Phuoc An and Go Dau Port Zones.

Hiep Phuoc port zone is currently under construction phase and expected to put the first 250m of container berth into operation in June 2009. In Long Tau port zone, the task force studied the difficulties in the planning of Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway which overlaping on the area of the port. Similarly, in construction sites of Lower Cai Mep, Gemadept – Terminal Link ports and Sai Gon Premier Container Terminal etc, issues such as connecting infrastructures, especially, highways which are neither available nor completed with port operation schedule were considered.

In the location of SP – PSA international port, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai inspected the construction items of general/container berth. This port is capable of accommodating vessels with tonnage of up to 80.000 DWT. It is expected to complete 2 berths with total length of 600m in 2010 and 2 remaining berths in 2012 in an attempt to reach exploitation capacity of 6 million tons of commodities/year.

In the course of investigation and inspection at sites, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai stressed: “In implementation of this major program, the top target is to ensure the schedule and requirements on removal of port system and shipbuilding yards on Sai Gon river, at the same time to meet local growth rate of commodity transportation, to apply modern and advanced technologies in order to increase the competitiveness of Vietnam in field of maritime service provision”.

Basing on such foundation, transport and maritime sectors as well as direct implementation units of port group 5 should pay attention in the coming time, especially, to construction schedule and sequence, removal, planning, project preparation, capital arrangement, site clearance, transport system, water and power supply systems and warehouses.