Prime Minister chairs meeting to review progress of North-South Expressway project

On the evening of February 4, in Vinh city, Nghe An province, comrade Pham Minh Chinh - Politburo member, Prime Minister chaired a meeting to review the progress of the North - South Eastern Expressway project in the 2017 - 2020 period, from Ninh Binh province to Thua Thien Hue province. Also chairing the meeting was comrade Le Van Thanh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister.

Overview of the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Attending the meeting, on behalf of central and local departments, ministries and branches, there were comrades of the Party Central Committee: Nguyen Van The - Minister of Transport; Tran Van Son - Minister, Head of the Government Office; Nguyen Thanh Nghi - Minister of Construction; Hoang Trung Dung - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Ha Tinh province; and comrades leading the Ministries of Transport, Planning and Investment, Finance, Construction, Natural Resources and Environment; Standing Deputy Secretaries, Chairmen of the People's Committees of the provinces: Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue.

On the side of Nghe An province, there were comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and comrades in the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee.

IDENTIFY AND RECOMMEND RESOLVING DIFFICULTIES AND PROBLEMS

Reporting at the meeting, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said that the North-South expressway project in the East from Ninh Binh province to Thua Thien Hue province has a total of 5 projects.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

Up to now, the Cao Bo - Mai Son project has been inaugurated; the Mai Son - National Highway 45 project is expected to be completed in 2022, with the volume reaching 49% at this time; the National Highway 45 - Nghi Son and Nghi Son - Dien Chau projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and have so far reached a volume of 12-24%; the Dien Chau - Bai Vot project is expected to be completed in May 2024 and has so far reached a volume of about 1.5%; the Cam Lo - La Son project is expected to be completed in 2021, but due to floods, the contractor has not been able to pave the asphalt and is committed to opening the road by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Emphasizing that this is a national key project, the Minister of Transport said that contractors have been working through Tet to ensure progress. However, currently, the construction of resettlement areas in some localities is slow; the relocation of power grid infrastructure takes a long time; compensation for people in some localities still has complaints and lawsuits, affecting the progress of site clearance...

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The speaks at the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

At the meeting, representatives of leaders of ministries, branches, localities, project management boards, and contractors reported a summary of the project's progress and raised a number of problems and difficulties regarding site clearance, material mines, capital sources, etc.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung - Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee said that the North - South expressway project through Nghe An province has a length of about 87.84km, belonging to 2 sub-projects: Nghi Son - Dien Chau section and Dien Chau - Bai Vot section.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province spoke at the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

The Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee affirmed that in the past time, the province has focused on site clearance, especially site clearance. Up to now, the Nghi Son - Dien Chau section has basically completed site clearance, while the Dien Chau - Bai Vot section still has 353m of site clearance remaining, mainly related to the relocation of technical infrastructure works affected by the project. However, the province will be determined to coordinate with ministries and branches to complete this work as soon as possible.

Leaders of Project Management Board 6 report on the progress of the North-South Expressway project, Nghi Son - Dien Chau section. Photo: Thanh Duy

Regarding resettlement construction, the province has 27 projects, 606 households to be relocated, but there are 9 projects with a scale of less than 10 billion VND and 10-20 households to be relocated. Regarding material mines, Nghe An ensures conditions to provide adequate and timely supplies to contractors. In March 2022, the Provincial People's Council will submit a proposal to convert the purpose of forest use so that Project Management Board 6 has conditions to have land resources to serve the filling of vulnerable sections.

PUT NATIONAL, ETHNIC, AND PEOPLE INTERESTS FIRST

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commended the Ministry of Transport, as the project's lead agency, for completing the planning work in 2021; directing the disbursement of allocated capital sources to basically complete; coordinating with localities to carry out site clearance and resettlement work to help people stabilize their lives. At the same time, he commended localities, management boards, contractors, and consultants for their efforts to overcome difficulties and ensure the project's progress.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh concluded the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

However, through inspection and supervision, the Prime Minister also said that there are still many problems that need to be solved from the consulting, bidding, site clearance to construction organization, resettlement...

Faced with these difficulties, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport to conduct more scientific research, organize, assign tasks, and direct better so that the national key project can be completed on schedule, ensuring quality and avoiding complaints from the people. During the operation process, if there are still problems with mechanisms and policies, it is necessary to consult on perfecting the institutions and learning from experience.

In addition, it is necessary to diversify consultants, because good consultants will have good projects, good projects will have good works, ensuring quality. For project management boards, it is necessary to learn from experience, calculate scientifically, appropriately, effectively, avoid fragmentation, lack of concentration, and avoid negativity. For supervisory units that must be present at the construction site, contractors must improve their capacity, seriously ensure technical aspects, progress, and quality.

Leaders of ministries and branches attended the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also requested localities to manage materials, create favorable conditions for construction sites, and ensure space for contractors to construct. When the road is completed, it is necessary to manage space and plan effective development space. Localities must review and inspect material mines, and if they expire, they must reclaim them and hand them over to the project management board and contractors.

The Prime Minister also assigned the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to conduct research to advise on thoroughly correcting shortcomings in regulations related to the management of raw material mines, ensuring compliance with the law, suitability with practical life, no loss of State assets, no inconvenience to people and businesses, creating a proactive position to implement better projects; combating negativity and corruption.

Leaders of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces attended the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

In particular, paying great attention to the people affected by the project, the head of the Government emphasized that localities need to continue to care for and mobilize people to relocate and resettle with the view that the goal of resettling people to have a better material and spiritual life than their old place of residence, and that the following year must be better than the previous year. This is also the premise, basis, and motivation to mobilize people to continue participating in other projects. However, during the resettlement process, anyone who violates the law must be punished.

"On the basis of assigned functions, tasks, powers and responsibilities, each person must strive for the common good, put national interests, ethnic interests and people's interests above all else to do better together, do not take advantage of others, do not distort the Party and State's policies and guidelines," Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized.

Delegates attending the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

On the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year, the Prime Minister sent his best wishes to officials, civil servants and workers at units and localities; at the same time, requested localities to focus on the rapid vaccination campaign in the spring of 2022, with priority given to workers and employees at contractors and project management boards./.