Numerous projects are underway to upgrade National Highway 7.

TPO - After three years since its commencement, the project to renovate and upgrade National Highway 7 remains incomplete as many households have yet to agree to hand over the land to the project's construction unit.

Báo Tiền Phong•15/09/2025

The project to renovate and upgrade National Highway 7 (QL7) from km0 to km36 and address landslides caused by storms and floods in the Khe Thoi - Nam Can section ( Nghe An province) commenced in September 2022. The project has a total investment of over 1,300 billion VND and a total length of over 28km.

Despite having only a little over a month left until the deadline, the National Highway 7 project is still under construction.

The project was divided into three construction packages and was expected to be completed in December 2023. However, the project was subsequently extended repeatedly for various reasons. The Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction ) later extended the deadline for the project's packages to be completed by October of this year.

During construction, the project was repeatedly delayed due to land acquisition issues along the route. Specifically, households whose land was affected by the project did not accept the compensation and support plan for land clearance. Some households engaged in disputes and filed lawsuits. Many households demanded compensation for land outside of their issued land use right certificates and outside of the current land use status.

For the reasons mentioned above, many households refused to hand over the land and prevented the project's construction unit from proceeding, despite being informed and persuaded by relevant agencies and local authorities.

Many sections of the route still lack the necessary land for construction.

According to a report from Project Management Board 4 (Ministry of Construction) as of September 12th, localities have handed over 54.79km/55.4km (98.9%) of the land for both the left and right sides of the route. Approximately 0.6km/55.4km (1.09%) of the land remains unhanded over, comprising 23 sections. Of these, Dien Chau and Minh Chau communes have 21 sections with a total length of approximately 0.47km; Hop Minh and Van Tu communes have 2 sections with a total length of approximately 0.13km.

Regarding the construction progress, the cumulative output as of September 12th reached 655.9/714.7 billion VND, achieving 91.7% of the contract.

Project Management Board 4 recommends that the Vietnam Road Administration report to the Ministry of Construction and the People's Committee of Nghe An province to direct the People's Committees of Dien Chau, Minh Chau, Hop Minh, and Van Tu communes to continue focusing on disseminating information and mobilizing people to comply with the compensation, support, and resettlement policies as stipulated by the State; and to urgently complete the relevant documents and procedures to hand over the land to the construction contractor as soon as possible.

Committee 4 also requested the Land Clearance Council to continue organizing construction protection in September 2025 for some households that are not eligible for compensation, whose land does not affect the project, or who have constructed illegal structures on land designated as road buffer zones.

Speaking to reporters on September 15th, Mr. Le Manh Hien, Chairman of the People's Committee of Minh Chau commune, Nghe An province, said that currently, there are still 12 households in the commune whose land is affected by the National Highway 7 project but have not yet accepted the compensation plan to hand over the land to the construction unit, leading to delays in the project and the risk of funding cuts.

The project's delay has significantly impacted traffic and the lives of people living along the route.

“The compensation and land clearance policies have been fully implemented in accordance with the law. However, the households still disagree and have made some demands that are contrary to the law. The National Highway 7 Land Clearance Council and Dien Cat commune have held many meetings, conducted propaganda and persuasion efforts, but the households still refuse to hand over the land, leading to prolonged implementation time, delays in project construction, and significant impacts on people's lives and traffic on the route. Minh Chau commune requests that the households comply and hand over the land for project construction,” said Mr. Le Manh Hien.

Recently, the People's Committee of Nghe An province also sent a document to Project Management Board 4, provincial departments, the provincial police, and communes regarding the urgent completion of land clearance for the National Highway 7 upgrade project.

Accordingly, Nghe An province requested that all units and localities urgently mobilize the entire political system, simultaneously conducting propaganda and providing documents to the Provincial Police, completing the assessment process to proceed with construction protection and enforcing land reclamation against cases that do not comply with regulations before September 20th.

Nghe An province has assigned the People's Committees of the localities full responsibility before the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee if delays in land handover occur, leading to the project not being completed within the implementation period.