Site clearance - the biggest "bottleneck" of public investment

Site clearance - the biggest

Construction of the North-South railway overpass in Hac Thanh ward.

In 2025, the Project for Integrated Development of Dynamic Cities - Tinh Gia Urban Sub-project was allocated a capital of more than 369.7 billion VND, of which the capital for construction and other expenses was 102 billion VND, the capital for site clearance was 267.6 billion VND. As of November 11, the newly disbursed construction capital was 41.3 billion VND (41% of the plan), while the newly disbursed site clearance capital was 150.3 billion VND (56.1%) and there is currently no plan for further disbursement. 4/8 important items of the project, including: Than canal renovation, coastal road, Binh Minh - Sao Vang - Nghi Son Economic Zone (KKTNS) route and 5 resettlement areas all have a new handover rate of 50% - 90%, not meeting the requirements for construction implementation.

Also in the Economic Zone, the North-South Expressway connecting project with National Highway 1A to Nghi Son Port was allocated a total capital of more than 803 billion VND. However, up to this point, the disbursement progress for the new construction and installation part has reached 81/484 billion VND, equivalent to 16.8% of the plan. The land clearance capital was allocated 318.6 billion VND, currently only 42.4 billion VND has been disbursed. Route 1 has only handed over 8.06/10.36km of clean land, while Route 2 has only handed over a small part.

According to information from the Management Board of Investment and Construction Projects of the Economic Zone and Industrial Parks of Thanh Hoa , not only these two projects but most of the projects invested by the unit this year (including 8 transitional projects) are facing difficulties in site clearance; the biggest difficulty is the change in compensation policy according to the new Land Law. After August 1, 2025, the Land Law 2024 takes effect and no longer supports 50% of residential land prices for garden and pond land adjacent to plots as prescribed in the old regulations. Many households compare the "two periods", do not agree with the new plan, leading to stagnation of site clearance in many projects. Currently, the Project for Integrated Development of Dynamic Urban Areas - Tinh Gia Urban Sub-project has only handed over about 51% of the total site; the project for the road connecting the North-South Expressway with National Highway 1A to Nghi Son Port has only handed over about 72% of the total site; The project to build technical infrastructure for the resettlement area of Hai Ha commune has only handed over about 27% of the total land; the project to invest in the drainage system for the industrial parks in the Northeast (Cau Cuu canal and Nui Coc canal) - KKTNS has only handed over about 28% of the total land... leading to the disbursement progress being affected.

Regarding this issue, Decree No. 151/2025/ND-CP dated June 12, 2025 of the Government on the decentralization of authority in the 2-level local government model, the authority to decide on support for garden land and ponds adjacent to plots has been decentralized to the People's Committees of communes and wards. This is a decentralization step to increase autonomy for the grassroots, but in reality, communes and wards all face difficulties and confusion when implementing the "other support" policy due to concerns about the lack of consensus of the people.

Chairman of Truc Lam Ward People's Committee, Mai Cao Cuong, also said: "We are looking forward to the 2024 Land Law being amended and the Government issuing a decree regulating the method of calculating, collecting and paying land use fees to have a basis for determining the price of garden and pond land adjacent to residential land. From there, we have a basis to apply and issue compensation policies for site clearance, ensuring the rights and consensus of the people and speeding up site clearance."

Site clearance - the biggest

Tung Lam resettlement area project is speeding up construction progress after removing obstacles in site clearance work.

Along with policy problems, the transition to a two-level local government also significantly impacted the progress of site clearance. Changes in the project acceptance process, organizational structure and human resource assignment have left many localities confused and overloaded. According to the review by the Department of Agriculture and Environment, after more than four months of operation, a series of difficulties have arisen, directly affecting the progress of implementation and disbursement of public investment capital. Accordingly, site clearance work, which was previously undertaken by the People's Committee at the district level (old), has now been transferred to the commune level. Communes and wards have to spend time accessing documents, establishing compensation councils and understanding the process; while simultaneously having to handle many other tasks. The capacity of staff is uneven, lacking experience in land, finance, construction... causing the progress to be prolonged.

In addition, the volume of projects handed over is very large, especially compensation and resettlement records of projects that go through many stages and are monitored by many officers. Reviewing, classifying, completing and transferring records to the receiving unit requires considerable time and human resources. Meanwhile, many communes and wards lack specialized staff and do not have specialized staff in this field, so they are limited in consulting and implementation work. In many cases, civil servants have to hold multiple positions and have not yet adapted to the new operating method of the two-level local government, leading to a hesitant mentality when handling complicated records.

A typical example is the Le Loi Avenue expansion project, from Phu Son intersection to Dong bridge, with a total investment of more than 1,000 billion VND, expected to be completed in September but so far has only reached 80% of the volume. According to the representative of the Dong Son Project Management Board, the total number of households affected by the project is 367 households and 15 organizations with an area of 6.2 hectares. Up to now, the project progress has only reached 80% and is being extended until June 2026 to complete. The reason for the delay of the project is also that when implementing the arrangement of the 2-level local government apparatus, the application of compensation and support policies for people with constructions and assets on land is facing difficulties.

By mid-October, the progress of site clearance in the whole province reached 55.4%, while the group of public investment projects only reached 46.91%. The whole province currently has 46 public investment projects facing site clearance problems, including projects that started construction before 2023 but have not yet been able to complete the handover of the site to speed up construction progress. Notably, in the total capital plan for 2025 assigned to 9 large and key projects of the province is 2,961.7 billion VND, but by October 28, only 457.7 billion VND had been disbursed, reaching only 15.5% of the plan, the remaining undisbursed capital is 2,504 billion VND, putting great pressure on the overall progress of the whole province.

Article and photos: Minh Hang

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/giai-phong-mat-bang-nut-that-nbsp-lon-nhat-cua-dau-tu-cong-268964.htm