“Blueprints will be ready by the second quarter of this year and be submitted to the Transport Ministry and the provincial government for final approval,” said Duong Van Hoa, Vinacomin’s deputy director.

Khe Ga aims at serving coal imports and aluminum and mineral exports from its early stage projects of mineral exploitation in the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Nong and Lam Dong. Hoa told the Daily that Vinacomin has another project underway to build a railway linking Dak Nong and Binh Thuan for coal and minerals transport. The railway blueprints are due by the end of this year but this larger project will require final approvals from the Government and the National Assembly, Hoa said.

Under a State-approved master development plan for seaports for Binh Thuan Province, Khe Ga will handle cargo shipping, coal imports and mineral exports for Vinacomin. The province reported that the total capital investment for project is US$250 million. The port, which is designed to receive ships up to 80,000 DWT, will have a total area of 315 hectares along 3.7 kilometers of beach from Khe Ga toward Phan Thiet City.

Binh Thuan is a southern province with 192 kilometers of coastline but no seaport. Under the seaport development scheme, the province expects to receive and load 16 million tons of cargo through its seaports by 2020. Binh Thuan’s Mui Ne of Phan Thiet City, Mui Gio in Bac Binh District, Vinh Tan in Tuy Phong District and Khe Ga in Ham Thuan Nam District are all suitable locations for seaport development.