March 31, handover of site clearance milestone for North-South Expressway section through Nghe An

On March 9, following the direction of the Ministry of Transport, Project Management Board 6 established a team to inspect the site of the detailed design documents and determine the site clearance milestones for two component projects of the North-South expressway, the Nghi Son (Thanh Hoa) - Dien Chau (Nghe An) section and the Dien Chau - Bai Vot (Ha Tinh) section.

According to the report of the design consulting units, the field survey and determination of the route direction in the field have been basically completed. Currently, the units are focusing on preparing the design documents, marking the road centerline to complete the site clearance documents and hand them over to the localities. During the implementation process, a number of problems arose related to the terrain, geology and elevation of the overpass and underpass on the route, causing difficulties in completing the documents.

During the field inspection, the project investor representative set the time to start handing over the North-South Expressway site clearance milestones on March 31.

Mr. Trieu Khac Dung - Deputy Director of Project Management Board 6 said: According to the plan set by the Ministry of Transport, the work of preparing design documents must be done quickly so that before March 31, the Project Management Boards can hand over site clearance piles and road boundary markers to the local site clearance councils.

However, due to the recent situation of people planting trees and illegally building structures waiting for compensation from the project, the Ministry requested to further speed up the progress of preparing documents and handing over land acquisition and clearance markers to localities.

During the field inspection, Project Management Board 6 recorded that in the two component projects of Nghi Son - Dien Chau section (50km long) and Dien Chau - Bai Vot section (49.3km long), there was no phenomenon of people illegally constructing structures on land planned for the expressway.

Some small locations related to overpasses, underpasses, intersections passing through residential areas, the initial design is not suitable with the reality and needs to be adjusted. Mr. Dung said: For now, at these locations, the design consultants will base on local recommendations and field surveys to build two parallel options so that the Board will present to the Ministry and relevant agencies to choose the optimal option.

18 households in Phu Lam commune, Tinh Gia district built houses "super fast" on land planned for a highway.

Regarding the progress of handing over the land clearance milestones, Mr. Dung requested: By mid-March, the design consulting units must basically complete the detailed design documents of the sections for the Board to submit to the Ministry for approval. On March 31, the Board will hand over the first phase of land clearance milestones to the local Land Clearance Councils. During this time, consulting units and field offices must monitor and work with localities, absolutely not allowing the situation of people illegally constructing works on land planned for highway construction.

It is known that at the end of 2018, at the request of localities, the Ministry of Transport handed over the highway centerline markers to localities to carry out the inventory of assets and constructions within the planned land area for highway construction. In February 2019, in Phu Lam commune, Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa, there suddenly appeared a situation where people bought construction materials and expanded constructions on residential land and agricultural land within the planned land area to wait for compensation.

Immediately after discovering the above situation, the People's Committee of Phu Lam Commune and the People's Committee of Tinh Gia District took action to handle the situation. Afterwards, the District People's Committee issued a decision to administratively fine 13 households violating construction order with a fine of about 25 million VND/household; the People's Committee of Phu Lam Commune also issued a decision to administratively fine 5 households for constructing works on agricultural land. In addition, the local government also requested that within 10 days (from the date of delivery of the decision - March 7), households must dismantle the illegally built works. In case of failure to dismantle, enforcement will be carried out in accordance with regulations.

The North-South Expressway plays a role in ensuring the country's development foundation and enhancing the economy's competitiveness.

The Nghi Son - Dien Chau section is 50 km long (Thanh Hoa 6.52 km, Nghe An 43.48 km) with a total investment of VND 8,380 billion. The Dien Chau - Bai Vot section has a total length of 49.3 km (Nghe An 44.4 km, Ha Tinh 4.9 km), with a total investment of VND 13,338 billion.

These are 2 out of 11 component projects of the North-South Expressway Construction Investment Project that the National Assembly and the Government have decided to prioritize investment in the 2017-2020 period.