Bechtel has signed an agreement with Van Phong Company to conduct a feasibility study for the project of developing Hon Khoai into a gateway port for coal imports used to fuel thermal power plants in the Mekong Delta region.
Mr. Dinh La Thang, Minister of Transport, suggested Bechtel to consider the market carefully, infrastructure development and logistics facilities before making any investment decision. It’s because the region also has a coal port named Duyen Hai and international transshipment port Cai Mep-Thi Vai in the whole southern region.
Mr. Thang also said that an expressway connecting Ca Mau with Can Tho City will be built after 2020 in line with a master plan for road-port links in the region.
There used to be a similar plan of an Australian-based firm, which proposed to build a port which can handle 250,000 DWT vessels supplying coal to thermal power plants and the remainder used for other goods. And the project was estimated at US$ 3.5 billion, planned to be built in 2014-2016.

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