One of the main reasons why the Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel, about 30km long, has not been dredged for more than 6 years is because there is no place to dump dredged waste.
However, to date, Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee has approved the policy of receiving dredged material from the Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel maintenance project to serve the leveling of the Industrial Park and Nam Tien Phong port.
Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel is a national maritime channel under the management and investment authority of the Ministry of Construction.
The Ministry of Construction has also just included projects to upgrade maritime infrastructure in the Quang Ninh area (Cam Pha, Cai Lan turning area) in the list of reviewing the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2026 - 2030.
Currently, the Vietnam Maritime and Waterway Administration, the Maritime and Waterway Project Management Board are implementing procedures to carry out dredging and maintenance of the Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel in 2026 and early 2027.
As Lao Dong Newspaper has reported, due to more than 6 years of no dredging despite ship owners, cargo owners, and port owners repeatedly petitioning, the channel into Cai Lan Deep-Water Port (Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel), Quang Ninh province is heavily silted up, with some locations being more than 2.1m shallow.
Many times, functional agencies, ship owners, cargo owners and two units operating and managing the wharf at Cai Lan Port, Quang Ninh Port Joint Stock Company and Cai Lan International Container Port Co., Ltd. (CICT Cai Lan) have proposed to the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction), whose direct unit is the Vietnam Maritime and Waterway Administration - the channel management unit - to soon dredge the channel.
However, the unit managing the Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel said that dredging is difficult due to the lack of waste dumping locations. Functional agencies of Quang Ninh province have also surveyed waste dumping locations with representatives of the Vietnam Maritime and Waterway Administration.
Hon Gai - Cai Lan channel is over 30km long, designed to ensure a depth of -10m (standard), allowing to receive 40,000 - 50,000 DWT full load ships and 75,000 DWT reduced load ships.
However, as of September 2025, the channel section from the B12 gasoline and oil port to the upstream of berth No. 2 of Cai Lan Port has a depth of -8.8m. The turning zone in front of berths No. 5, 6, 7 is -7.9m deep. This parameter shows that siltation has caused the turning zone depth to continue to decrease by 0.4m compared to September 2024 and decrease by 2.1m compared to the design standard (-10m), causing difficulties for large tonnage ships to enter and exit.
The last time this channel was dredged was in 2019 to bring the channel depth down to -9.9m.
The heavily silted channel affects the operation of cargo ships because they have to wait for the tide or unload to enter and exit. This both takes time and increases costs for businesses and ship owners.
