Thai firm pulls plug on coal-fired power plant after 9 years of struggle

It has informed authorities in the central province it will no longer pursue the VND50-trillion (US$2 billion) project, which was approved in 2013 but remained mired in land acquisition and compensation issues.

It cited its inability to raise funds and the commitments made by the Vietnamese and Thai governments to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Since EGATi belongs to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade had called on its Thai counterpart to suspend the project.

For the last nine years some 150 families in Hai Lang District have been living with deteriorating roads, drainage and lighting since their lands and houses were to be acquired to make way for the plant.

Locals were not allowed to sell their lands or even make repairs to their homes.

"Roads are damaged and muddy, and there is no public lighting," Truong Minh Khanh, who for years has not been able to divide his land into four to give his brothers, said.

In 2020 province authorities built two new areas to relocate the displaced people, but they refused to move since EGATi had not paid them for their lands.