Projects to upgrade National Highway 7 are in disarray

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

Although the completion deadline is just over a month away, the National Highway 7 project is still under construction.

The project is divided into 3 construction packages and is expected to be completed in December 2023. However, the project was then repeatedly extended for many reasons. The Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction ) then extended the project packages to be completed in October this year.

During the construction process, due to land acquisition problems on the route, the project was continuously delayed. Specifically, households whose land was affected by the project did not accept the compensation, support, and site clearance compensation plan (GPMB). Some households disputed and filed lawsuits. Many households requested compensation for land outside the granted land use right certificate, outside the current land use status...

For the above reasons, many households refuse to hand over the land and do not allow the project construction unit to proceed despite being propagandized and mobilized by units and localities.

Many sections on the route still have no construction site.

According to the report of Project Management Board 4 (Ministry of Construction), as of September 12, localities have handed over 54.79km/55.4km (reaching 98.9%) of the left and right routes. The unhanded over area is about 0.6km/55.4km, accounting for 1.09%, including 23 sections. Of which, Dien Chau and Minh Chau communes have 21 sections with a total length of about 0.47km; Hop Minh and Van Tu communes have 2 sections with a total length of about 0.13km.

Regarding construction status, cumulative output as of September 12 reached 655.9/714.7 billion VND, reaching 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 to focus on propaganda and mobilize people to comply with compensation, support and resettlement policies according to State regulations; Urgently complete related documents and procedures to hand over the site to the construction contractor as soon as possible.

Committee 4 also proposed that the Compensation Council continue to organize construction protection in September 2025 for some households that are not eligible for compensation, whose land does not affect the project or illegally construct works on land free of roads.

Speaking to reporters on September 15, Mr. Le Manh Hien - Chairman of the People's Committee of Minh Chau Commune, Nghe An - said that currently, this commune still has 12 households whose land is affected by the National Highway 7 project but have not yet approved the compensation support plan to hand over the site to the construction unit, leading to the project being behind schedule and at risk of having its capital cut.

The project's delay has greatly affected traffic and the lives of people on both sides of the road.

“The compensation policy for land acquisition and clearance has been fully implemented in accordance with the law. However, households still do not agree and make some requests that are contrary to the law. The National Highway 7 Land Acquisition and Clearance Council and Dien Cat Commune have organized many meetings, propaganda, and mobilization, but households still do not hand over the site, leading to a prolonged implementation time, slow project progress, and greatly affecting people's lives and traffic on the route. Minh Chau Commune requests households to comply with handing over the site for project construction,” said Mr. Le Manh Hien.

Recently, the People's Committee of Nghe An province also sent an official dispatch to Project Management Board 4, departments, provincial police and communes regarding the urgent completion of site clearance for the National Highway 7 upgrading project.

Accordingly, Nghe An province requires units and localities to urgently mobilize the entire political system to take action, simultaneously conduct propaganda and provide documents to the Provincial Police, complete the collection of appraisal opinions to protect construction, and enforce land recovery for cases of non-compliance with regulations before September 20.

Nghe An province assigns the People's Committees of localities to take full responsibility before the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee if there is a delay in handing over the site, leading to the project not being completed by the end of the implementation period.