Tien Sa port inaugurated-
With a coastline of 3,260 km and approximately 14,000 km of navigable rivers and canals, Vietnam is expected to position itself as Asia’s next tiger economy. The country is expected to become one of the important maritime countries in Asia by 2020. With an extensive port infrastructure involving more than 120 ports, the port industry is one of the main priority sectors of the Government of Vietnam. Besides, Vietnam is the world’s fourth largest shipbuilding country.
The recently inaugurated Phase 2 expansion project of Tien Sa port is intended to further increase the cargo handled at the port and make it a modern container port in the region. Being implemented at an investment of 1.07 trillion dong, construction work on the port was completed in July 2018. The port, which is part of Vietnam’s seaport development strategy, is expected to handle 12 million tonnes of cargo and will receive 70,000 deadweight tonnage container ships annually.
Background
The Da Nang port system in Central Vietnam includes the Tien Sa terminal (sea port), Song Han terminal (river port) and several other terminals. The Tien Sa terminal (also known as Tien Sa port) is the third largest international seaport in the country (in terms of cargo handling volume) after Sai Gon port in the south and Hai Phong port in the north. Tien Sa port is the centre of maritime transportation in the central region, and is also positioned as the eastern gateway of the 1,450 km East-West Economic Corridor passing through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
The Special Assistance for Project Formation Study (1998) conducted by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund had recommended a three-phase expansion of the Da Nang port system – improvement of Tien Sa port as Phase 1, expansion of Tien Sa port as Phase 2 and construction of a new port in Lien Chieu as Phase 3 of the project. The three-phased master plan was based on the National Port Development Master Plan (1996) and the Asian Development Bank’s feasibility study on the development of the East West Economic Corridor (1997). The project was implemented with financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Scope of expansion of Tien Sa port
The broad scope of work for the project included construction of a breakwater, a container terminal and two bypasses; repair of two piers; improvement of port access roads; and procurement of equipment.
Breakwater: The construction of the breakwater was conceived to ensure a higher rate of use of the piers in unfavourable weather conditions. Initially planned with a length of 250 metres, a 471.9 metre long breakwater was constructed by April 2007 (271.9 metres by September 2003 and another 200 metres by April 2007).
Container terminal: Construction work on the container terminal was undertaken in two stages. Stage I involved the construction of a 47,023 square metre container yard (January 2002 to December 2003) and Stage II involved extension of the container yard to 92,000 square metres (from mid-January 2004 to September 2004).
Repair of two piers: Repair work of two new piers, measuring 310 metres and 210 metres in length, was undertaken for docking container ships.
Dredging: As designed, dredging work was undertaken for Pier 1 and Pier 2 at a depth of 10 metres. The volume dredged was later increased from 55,400 cubic metres (cu m) to 222,565 cu m for providing better access to larger vessels at the port.
Procurement of equipment: On the basis of the actual conditions of Tien Sa port and the existing equipment available at the port, smaller quantities of the equipment – cranes, tractors, chassis, forklift, maintenance equipment, tugboat and computer system – were procured to implement the project.
Construction of Ngo Quyen bypass: The construction of the Ngo Quyen bypass was undertaken to ensure smooth flow of traffic during the construction of the Ngo Quyen access road and to reduce traffic flow through the construction site.
Construction of Da Nang bypass: Beginning at the Hai Van pass tunnel and ending at the junction with National Highway (NH)-14B at Tuy Loan, the 18.28 km long bypass was constructed to connect the Hai Van tunnel with the Hoa Cam junction-Tuyen Son bridge-Ngo Quyen Street and Tien Sa port, and NH-14B with the East West Economic Corridor.
The way forward
The Da Nang port development strategy is in line with Vietnam’s marine sector development strategy as a whole. The expansion of Tien Sa port is expected to make Da Nang a logistics hub in the central region of the country and meet international logistics standards in the region connecting the East-West Economic Corridor route to Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. In addition, the port’s expansion is expected to ensure effective operation of the city’s marine transport network by 2020.
