Nghe An was commended for its work in clearing land for the North-South Expressway.

On the morning of April 14, comrade Nguyen Van The - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Transport chaired an online meeting between the Ministry and localities. At Nghe An bridge, comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, and representatives of departments, branches and districts attended the meeting.

144 resettlement areas must be built

The North-South Expressway construction project is an important national project, approved by the National Assembly in principle for investment, initially investing in 11 component projects with a total length of 654km, passing through 13 provinces including Nghe An, with a total investment of about 118,716 billion VND, total site clearance cost of about 12,401 billion VND, recovered area of ​​about 4,835 hectares, resettling about 3,690 households and relocating many technical works.

According to the report of the Ministry of Transport, up to now, 11 projects have basically completed the work of measuring, counting, and making compensation plans. The conditions for handing over the site have been met for 457.2km/635.6km, reaching 70%. Some provinces have achieved high rates of site clearance such as Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Ninh Thuan...).

Regarding resettlement work: The total number of resettlement areas to be built is 114, for 3,690 households, to date only 35/114 areas have been built.

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung and comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the Nghe An bridgehead. Photo: Lam Tung

In Nghe An, the report at the meeting showed: The North-South expressway project through Nghe An province is about 87.84 km long, including 2 projects Nghi Son - Dien Chau and Dien Chau - Bai Vot, passing through Hoang Mai town and the districts: Quynh Luu, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen.

It is required that by the end of May 2020, the site clearance work for the section through Nghe An province will reach 94.2%. By August 30, 2020, the site clearance will be 87.84km, reaching 100%.

According to the report of Nghe An Department of Transport, 66.58/87.84km of land has been cleared, reaching 75.8% of the plan. There are currently some problems with land clearance for electricity, telecommunications, clean water, resettlement, etc. Nghe An Provincial People's Committee has directed localities to implement according to the set schedule, and the Provincial People's Committee has committed to the Ministry of Transport to ensure the set schedule. By June, the entire route will be basically handed over to the contractor.

The Ministry of Transport assessed that, to date, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the progress of site clearance is still slow. According to the plan, the provinces must hand over agricultural land to the project in the second quarter of 2020, but to date many localities have not yet handed over, while resettlement areas have not been completed.

Overview of the meeting. Photo: Lam Tung

The construction of resettlement areas and relocation of technical works are considered critical to the progress of site clearance. Therefore, the Ministry of Transport requires localities and owners of technical works to focus on implementing the handover of the site.

Strictly implement the commitment to the Prime Minister on progress

Concluding the meeting, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The affirmed: Site clearance is one of the most important steps to implement the project, contributing to completing the project on schedule. Recently, the Prime Minister issued Resolution No. 41, in which the North-South Expressway received special attention in terms of capital and the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport and localities to make the greatest efforts to build the North-South Expressway on schedule.

The Minister of Transport requested that localities review the progress of site clearance, actively implement resettlement areas for people, and completely relocate technical infrastructure works. Currently, more than 1,200 locations are still stuck with electricity, hundreds of locations are stuck with telecommunications, hundreds of resettlement areas have not been built... if localities are not determined, it will be difficult to ensure the progress committed to the Prime Minister.

Map of the North-South Expressway section through Hoang Mai. Photo: PV

Localities need to accurately review the land acquisition and clearance budget to have a basis for handling, urgently select contractors to construct the remaining 82 resettlement areas to complete in the second quarter of 2020; strictly handle recommendations from the district level.

The handover of the project site by the end of the second quarter of 2020 is an urgent goal and task that must be completed. The Minister of Transport requested the Project Management Boards and localities to mobilize the strength of the entire political system to best solve the assigned tasks, ensuring that the North-South Expressway will be constructed in August 2020.

At the meeting, the Minister of Transport also praised Nghe An for its site clearance work. Nghe An is currently one of the provinces with the highest progress among the 13 provinces and cities. The Ministry of Transport believes that Nghe An will complete the work on schedule.

The total cost of land acquisition for the North-South expressway through Nghe An according to the overall approval decision is 2,762 billion VND (Nghi Son - Dien Chau 1,261 billion VND; Dien Chau - Bai Vot 1,501 billion VND).

The capital allocated to the project is 1,891.5 billion VND (Nghi Son - Dien Chau section: 925 billion VND; Dien Chau - Bai Vot section: 966.5 billion VND). Of which: The capital plan for 2020 is 1,195 billion (Nghi Son - Dien Chau: 575 billion VND; Dien Chau - Bai Vot: 620 billion VND).