Need to urgently complete resettlement areas of Van Ninh expressway project

To have a site for the construction of the North-South Expressway project in the East, Van Ninh-Cam Lo section (Van Ninh-Cam Lo Expressway), Quang Tri province has invested in building 9 resettlement areas for hundreds of households subject to clearance. However, after nearly 1 year since the project started, all resettlement sites in the province have not been completed. This has caused many difficulties for the people, greatly affecting the project implementation process due to land clearance problems.

Need to urgently complete resettlement areas of Van Ninh - Cam Lo expressway project

The family of Ms. Pham Thi Thu Linh and Mr. Hoang Duc Hung must continue to live in a temporary house on borrowed land because they have not been granted land for resettlement - Photo: LT

Looking forward to resettlement land

As one of the households that agreed early to demolish their houses and accept to borrow land to build temporary houses to clear the land for the Van Ninh - Cam Lo expressway project from December 2022, however, after nearly 1 year, although the project has been implemented, up to now, the family of Mr. Hoang Duc Hung and Ms. Pham Thi Thu Linh in Vinh An village, Cam Hieu commune, Cam Lo district has not been granted resettlement land.

Mr. Hung complained: “To implement the State's policy, my family agreed to relocate and build a temporary house to live in before Tet last year. I thought it would only be a few months until Tet, but it has been almost a year and the family's resettlement land has not been seen yet, so I am very worried. Perhaps, we will have to celebrate another Tet in this temporary house soon.” Continuing, Mrs. Linh was upset: “If we had known that the resettlement land allocation would take this long, my family would have found a way to buy land to build a stable house or build a more solid house to live in. Living in a temporary house like this, every time it rains, floods or something happens, my family is very worried.”

In addition to Mr. Hoang Duc Hung's family, in Cam Lo district, there are 130 households subject to resettlement due to the impact of the Van Ninh - Cam Lo expressway project. To stabilize people's lives, the locality is urgently implementing the construction of 3 resettlement areas in Cam Thuy, Cam Tuyen and Cam Hieu communes with a total capital of over 140.1 billion VND.

However, for many reasons, all three areas have not been completed to provide land for affected families. Observing the actual situation at the resettlement area of Cam Hieu commune, Quang Tri Newspaper reporters found that only a small amount of ground had been poured and then stopped, the surrounding area was still vacant, low-lying land, with many places still holding water.

Similarly, in Gio Linh district, the locality is making efforts to build 3 resettlement areas in Hai Thai, Gio An and Linh Truong communes with a total investment of over 110.1 billion VND to accommodate 129 affected households eligible for resettlement. However, up to now, none of the 3 resettlement areas have been completed to provide land for the people.

Chairman of Hai Thai Commune People's Committee Hoang Doan said that the resettlement area of Hai Thai commune has 2 construction locations in Truong Tri and Truong Tho villages. This is the first area to be started in the whole province, but so far, the project progress has only reached about 45% of the volume. At the resettlement site in Truong Tho village, the construction unit is urgently building a drainage system, pouring crushed stone layer 1 on the roads, installing electricity and water systems... However, it may be very difficult to hand over land to people on schedule in 2023.

Quickly remove difficulties to speed up progress

The Van Ninh - Cam Lo Expressway Project under the North - South Eastern Expressway Project in the 2021 - 2025 period has a total length of 65.7 km. Of which, the section through Quang Tri province is 32.53 km long, passing through Vinh Linh, Gio Linh and Cam Lo districts. To stabilize the lives of about 351 households affected by the project that have to be relocated, the province has deployed the construction of 9 resettlement areas in these 3 localities with a total area of over 37.2 hectares. As of November 2023, only 7 resettlement areas are under construction but none of them have been completed; 2 resettlement areas in Gio An and Linh Truong communes, Gio Linh district have not been implemented due to land acquisition problems.

Vice Chairman of Cam Lo District People's Committee Tran Hoai Linh said that the biggest difficulty in implementing the construction of resettlement areas in the district at present is the lack of land for leveling and unfavorable weather due to frequent rain, making construction difficult.

Currently, the entire Cam Lo district lacks about 200,000 ^m3 of fill soil to serve the leveling of resettlement areas. To solve this problem, the district has made a plan, asked for opinions from all levels, sectors and the Provincial People's Committee to allow the use of the volume of soil from lowering the height and making the ground at Cam Hieu Industrial Park and Nam Hieu Residential Area, Cam Hieu Commune to serve the construction of resettlement areas.

In addition, to promptly hand over resettlement land to people to build houses, the locality focuses on completing the leveling of resettlement areas in advance to divide them into plots and then allocate them to households. At the same time, it continues to complete the infrastructure. Doing so will help people build houses soon, stabilize their lives and speed up the project's progress.

According to the report of the Steering Committee for Land Acquisition and Clearance of the Van Ninh - Cam Lo Expressway in Quang Tri Province, the reason for the delay in completing the resettlement areas is that some areas are still stuck in the land acquisition and clearance work. For example, at the Gio An resettlement area, Gio Linh district has completed the compensation and support work and signed the construction contract.

However, because Quang Tri Rubber One Member Co., Ltd. has not yet liquidated its assets on 6.3 hectares of rubber trees to hand over the site, construction here cannot be carried out. In addition, the construction process has encountered many disadvantages due to the frequent and prolonged rainy weather, which greatly affects the progress and quality of the project.

To resolve the issue, the Steering Committee for Land Acquisition and Clearance of the Van Ninh - Cam Lo Expressway in Quang Tri province requested localities to focus on directing and promptly resolving problems to speed up construction progress; prioritize completing site leveling and dividing plots to allocate land to households, creating conditions for people to be proactive in building houses.

In the immediate future, the Provincial People's Committee has agreed to support households that have been cleared and have handed over their land with 2 million VND/month in rental costs while waiting for resettlement land. At the same time, localities will continue to implement temporary housing arrangements and mobilize people to relocate to hand over land for project construction.

Regarding the source of fill soil, on July 13, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision to assign 5 soil mines with an exploitable reserve of 1.1 million m3 in Gio Linh and Vinh Linh districts to construction units and localities to serve the Van Ninh - Cam Lo expressway project and level the resettlement areas.

Le Truong

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