The Nhat Tan bridge will be the country’s largest suspension bridge, and once it is completed by October, 2012, it will cut travel times from Hanoi’s centre to Noi Bai airport in half.

According to the latest report from project investor Ta Ngan Infrastructure Project Management Unit, the 75 households in Tay Ho district Phu Thuong commune had not allowed project staff to go inside and collect figures to set up a database for land clearance and compensation.

“Those people are afraid that the compensation will not be enough. We have closely coordinated with local authorities to pursue them and we hope that they will soon agree,” said unit deputy director Bui Dang Thang.

The project asked the households to permit staff to go inside dwellings. However, they still disagreed. “If those households continue to disagree, we will take figures and data kept at the local commune’s people’s committee to set up plans for clearance and compensation,” Thang said.

In total, the project needs to wipe out more than 1,160,000 square metres on both sides of the bridge. Around 4,000 families and five organisations were currently occupying those areas. This land was along both two sides of the Red River, crossing three communes of Dong Anh district and two communes of Tay Ho district.

So far last week, more than three hectares were transferred to the unit to prepare for the start of construction. The rest of the areas were expected to be finished by the year’s end to make way for construction next year.

Thang said the project had not faced compensation difficulties in areas that were occupied by state-owned organisations or the army. Construction plans for the bridge were recently signed between IHI and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Company, worth VND10.2 trillion ($567 million) to build the main part of the structure and the northern approach road to the bridge.

Nhat Tan will also link the city centre with industrial zones in the north, including North Thang Long-Van Tri, Dong Anh-Co Loa and Gia Lam-Sai Dong-Yen Vien. The bridge will span nearly nine kilometres, including the 3.7km crossing the Red River, making it the longest bridge in Vietnam.

The bridge will be 33.2 metres wide and divided into four lanes, two for buses and two for other vehicles. The total cost of the project was estimated at VND13.6 trillion ($588 million), sourced from loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and contributions from the Vietnamese government.

Nhat Tan bridge will be one of the five key transport projects that the Hanoi People’s Committee has targeted to start construction by early next year. The four other projects were the railway system linking Nhon and Hanoi stations, an urban railway system linking Cat Linh and Ha Dong, the Nhat Tan-Noi Bai road and a new passenger terminal at Noi Bai airport.