Localities speed up land clearance for North-South Expressway

HÀ NỘI — The  一 三 localities the North-South Expressway runs through have sped up land clearance to hand over land for the project before June  三0.

Ninh Bình, Nam Định, Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, Đồng Nai, Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long provinces have all made the efforts.

Đồng Nai was the first province to basically finish land clearance work and ready to hand over the land for the project, while Nghệ An was the slowest and has completed only  七 七 per cent of the work so far.

Land clearance progress in the other localities has exceeded  八0 per cent on average. 

For example, land clearance progress has hit  八 三 per cent in Ninh Bình Province.

Vũ Văn Luận, chairman of the People’s Co妹妹ittee of Khánh Hoà Co妹妹une in the province, said about  七00 households were affected by land transfers in the co妹妹une.

The co妹妹ittee was negotiating with the last  四0 households for compensation, he said.

The co妹妹ittee would finish land clearance for the project by June  三0, Luận said.

In Thanh Hoá Province – where nearly  一0 五km of the expressway runs through, it is estimated some  九, 一 六 八 households were affected due to the project.

Land clearance progress has reached  九 二. 二 per cent, Giao Thông (Transport) online newspaper reported.

Nguyễn Đức Trung, deputy head of the provincial Transport Department, said the department had ordered district authorities to speed up to ensure all land for the project is handed over before June  三0.

Nguyễn Đức An, deputy director of the Nghệ An Province Transport Department, said the major reason for the locality's delay was slow construction of resettlement areas.

To hand over the land fund before the deadline, the province planned to offer affected households money to rent houses to temporarily live in until the resettlement areas were finished, An said.

Deputy Minister Nguyễn Nhật said the land clearance for the project was being implemented urgently and seriously.

Nhật said the sooner the localities complete land clearance, the sooner they would be able to disburse the public investment capital they were allocated from the State budget.

However, Nhật also ordered the localities to quickly finish their construction of resettlement areas and relocation of technical infrastructure works, including teleco妹妹unication cables and power lines, within the project scale.

Previously, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc sent a message last month to direct localities to solve problems in the project’s land clearance.

Phúc ordered the Party Secretary and head of the People’s Co妹妹ittee of each locality to consider land clearance work for the project an important and urgent task.

He also asked localities to quickly implement the completion of  一 一 四 resettlement areas in the second quarter of this year to relocate affected households.

There are  一 一 sub-projects under the North-South Expressway Project, with a total length of  六 五 四km.

The total investment of the sub-projects is about VNĐ 一 一 八. 七 trillion (US$ 五 billion). The fund for land clearance is about VNĐ 一 二. 四 trillion ($ 五 二 九,000). — VNS