Why is the Nguyen Sy Sach Street extension project (Vinh city) behind schedule?

Difficulty in determining the origin of the land

The project is divided into 3 packages/3 phases, of which about 500m from Mu Nuoi cemetery, Hung Dung ward to the pumping station of the reservoir has been completed; section 2 from the 35m road to Phong Quang hamlet, nearly 2km has been completed and section 3 from the end of Phong Quang hamlet to the road along Lam river, nearly 1km, is under construction.

As of mid-May, the total length of the road is 6.5 km, including from the starting point on the old Nguyen Sy Sach street (Muong Thanh Cua Dong hotel) toLam River RoadThe section through Hung Hoa commune has been 5 km long and 50% of the work has been completed.

The extended Nguyen Sy Sach Street will be the new urban space axis of Vinh City to the East. Photo: Nguyen Hai

The Nguyen Sy Sach extended road project has a total estimated investment of 249 billion VND, of which the construction part is 141 billion VND, the compensation cost for site clearance is 70 billion VND, the rest is other costs. Currently, the sections have been cleared, the contractors have basically constructed, the remaining part is less than 2 km but is identified as the most difficult part because of too many problems.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Duc - Deputy Director of Vinh City Land Fund Exploitation Center

According to a representative of the Vinh City Land Fund Exploitation and Development Center, of the nearly 1,000 graves that had to be relocated, the city had relocated over 300 unclaimed graves to Hung Loc cemetery, about 200 were relocated by local people, and the remaining 500 graves at Mu Nuoi cemetery in Hung Dung ward were the most difficult to relocate.

Besides the reasons related to the spiritual culture of the clans, a new difficulty has arisen because the city's land fund for cemeteries is no longer available and the city's policy is not to plan new cemeteries, so finding land to relocate graves is extremely difficult.

About 300m of the connecting section between Nguyen Sy Sach Street extending from Hung Hoa to Ho Dieu Hoa Lake has not been completed due to the cemetery area. Photo: Nguyen Hai

An officer of the City's Land Clearance Working Group shared: Current regulations on land compensation and reclamation do not have provisions on cemetery land resettlement; the State only supports the cost of exhumation and relocation of graves at an average of about 4-6 million VND/grave, in the case of solid tombs, it is higher but not more than 20 million VND. However, because the price of cemetery land is increasingly rare, the relocation is very difficult. For example, in the Con Vang area, Nghi Kim commune, where it is planned to mobilize graves from Dam Mu Nuoi (Hung Dung), the price of each grave is about 10 million VND and nearly double the price supported by the State, so although the ward and city have dialogued and mobilized, many households have not yet agreed to relocate.

In addition, to clear the route,Nguyen Sy Sach Street extension39 households need to be relocated, including 34 households in Phong Quang hamlet and 5 households in Hoa Thai hamlet (Hung Hoa). Currently, the Vinh City Investment Project Management Board is actively surveying, designing and establishing a project to submit to the competent authority to build a resettlement area in Hoa Thai hamlet. If everything goes according to plan, there will be a new resettlement area by the end of the year.
Upon further investigation, we learned that, in addition to the two problems that could affect the progress of the second handover, there are actually a number of other reasons that arise. The reason is that the local land management is quite lax, so some areas of rice fields and fish ponds that the project road passes through have long been managed and used by organizations and cooperatives. The records do not show who the land was allocated to, so it is very difficult to establish records to determine the origin of the land for compensation and support.

Nguyen Sy Sach Street is under construction to Phong Quang hamlet, Hung Hoa commune, but has not yet relocated 34 households, so it has to stop. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Resolutely take action to remove obstacles and speed up progress

A representative of Tay An Company, the construction unit, said: The company took on the construction of nearly 2 km of road, with early site clearance, the construction would have been completed in just 6 months, but due to the cemetery or agricultural land of unknown origin, it has been struggling to complete. Due to lack of land, it had to stop from October 2020 until now and will continue from the end of April when more land is available.
Meanwhile, the representative of Hoang Son Company proposed: The Nguyen Sy Sach extended road project is a key traffic project of Vinh city. To ensure progress, along with the efforts of the contractor, the Vinh City People's Committee, departments and the Provincial People's Committee must take more drastic action so that the site clearance can proceed. Currently, the construction unit price is fluctuating every day. The contractors have signed a lump sum contract with the province, so the construction is delayed for each day, the contractor loses that day.

Based on the actual situation of the Nguyen Sy Sach extended road, there are currently many constructions. According to the survey of contractors, it will take 4-9 months to relocate; if there is a delay, it will be very difficult to relocate, hand over the clean construction site in the next 6 months and create conditions to complete the project and hand over the road by December 31, 2021.

Construction of a drainage ditch across the extended Nguyen Sy Sach Street. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen The Anh - Deputy Director of Vinh City Investment Project Management Board added: After agreeing to extend the extension for another 9 months, recently, Vinh City People's Committee re-surveyed and agreed on the plan to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for opinion on constructing straight from the old Nguyen Sy Sach Street along the North Canal down to the Regulation Lake instead of the previous plan of straightening Nguyen Sy Sach Street to Tan Hung Street (next to the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital).