Reasons for slow progress of North-South expressway through Nghe An

In addition to the Covid-19 pandemic making it difficult to conduct propaganda activities, public meetings, mobilization, and mass deployment, some localities have also slowed down construction work, land compensation in resettlement areas, and compensation for land built without authority.

Urgently clear encroached and violated land

As a locality with a highway passing through 2 communes, Yen Thanh is currently facing many difficulties in compensation work. According to the district's report, there are currently 17 households building houses on land 64, public land leased by the commune for farms and ranches, and have built houses on agricultural land. Of these, 16 households built before July 1, 2004, and 1 household built after July 1, 2004.

In fact, 4 households built temporary houses, 8 households built semi-permanent houses, and 5 households built permanent houses. These households were leased by the Commune People's Committee to build farms and ranches on bad land. By 2013, implementing the policy of converting land according to Directive 08 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, households requested to transfer the land allocated under Decree 64/ND-CP to adjacent land rented for farms and ranches. According to the report of the People's Committee of Do Thanh Commune, of these 17 households, 8 households do not have residential land or houses elsewhere in the commune and are facing compensation issues.

Currently, the District People's Committee has arranged land funds to allocate land in the form of valuation without auction for these households located in the resettlement area of ​​the North-South Expressway GPMB project and is asking for opinions from the Provincial People's Committee on compensation and support mechanisms.

Yen Thanh district is also struggling with compensation for 8 households that built illegally on Vach Bac canal, of which 4 households have built permanent houses and 4 households have not built houses.

Violations on the Vach Bac canal in Yen Thanh district are related to compensation for the construction of the North-South expressway. Photo: VT

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Ha - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said: Regarding the households and individuals building houses on Vach Bac canal (section through Do Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district), the origin of the land was sold by Do Thanh commune People's Committee without authority in 1993, 1994 without being granted a land use right certificate, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee has issued Conclusion No. 641/KL-UBND dated November 2, 2017 on the conclusion of the inspection of land management, use, and construction of works on Vach Bac irrigation canal. However, currently, entering into compensation for the clearance of the North - South expressway is not easy.

The situation in Dien Chau district is similar. There are 78 households with assets on agricultural and forestry land affected by the North-South Expressway. Due to ineffective agricultural and forestry production, many households have arbitrarily built houses and other structures on the land according to the economic model of family farms and ranches. The above types of assets were mainly built after July 1, 2004, after the time of land consolidation and plot exchange according to Directive 08. Based on Decision No. 58/2015/UBND of Nghe An province, the above types of assets are not eligible for compensation and support, so the site clearance work is also difficult.

Another difficulty is that after marking the traffic safety corridor boundary for the North-South expressway, many households with residential land within the highway traffic safety corridor were not compensated or supported according to regulations, and were restricted or had difficulty in constructing works or conducting transactions on land use rights.

North-South Expressway passes through Dien Chau district. Photo: PV

Mobilize the entire political system into action

Since the beginning of 2020, the progress of the North-South expressway project through Nghe An has shown signs of slowing down, because in addition to clearing agricultural land, other types of land are facing difficulties and many districts participating in the project lack determination.

In addition to the basically cleared agricultural land, localities must focus on site clearance, building resettlement areas to relocate people, and speeding up the relocation of electricity and telecommunications works to hand over construction sites for the project.

According to Mr. Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the North-South Expressway project is a key and final project. Districts need to mobilize the entire political system to participate because this is an urgent issue, increasing public investment capacity, promoting socio-economic development. Organize advocacy and propaganda about the importance, significance, compensation and site clearance policies.

Focus on synchronously implementing compensation, support, and resettlement contents, paying attention to early compensation for clearance and construction of resettlement areas, and completing the approval and measurement of the section through Hung Nguyen - Dien Chau. Inventory, make plans, and compensate and support for the remaining types of land. The progress of handing over garden land and residential land that is not subject to resettlement must be completed by May 10, 2020, and for garden land and residential land that is not subject to resettlement, it must be completed by August 30, 2020.

Hoang Mai has completed the planning of the resettlement area. Photo: Tran Chau

The North-South Expressway project through Nghe An is 87.84 km long, including 2 sub-projects: Nghi Son - Dien Chau and Dien Chau - Bai Vot (Ha Tinh), passing through Hoang Mai town and the districts of Quynh Luu, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen. The North-South Expressway has 79.31 km of agricultural land and 8.53 km of residential land and must resettle 605 households. Currently, the project has a total approved cost of land acquisition and clearance of 2,762 billion VND.

Up to now, 692.7 billion VND has been disbursed and 66.58/87.84 km of land has been cleared, reaching 75.8%, of which agricultural land is 65.58 km/79.84 km.