Site clearance delays road construction in Dong Nai

Work on the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway between the beach city of Vung Tau and the industrial city of Bien Hoa in Dong Nai Province began in June.

But contractors have yet to receive cleared land to build the expressway in Dong Nai.

Slated to cost around VND18 trillion (US$755.67 million) in total, the expressway will run 53.7 km in Ho Chi Minh City and 34 km in Dong Nai before reaching Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province.

In Ba Ria – Vung Tau, 80% of site clearance has been completed, while in Dong Nai progress has reached just 6%.

Nguyen Hong Que, deputy director of the board that is in charge of site clearance and compensation for the expressway in Dong Nai, said 290 hectares still need to be cleared to serve the project.

Of 3,700 houses that need to be removed, many were built illegally, and their owners do not have official house ownership certificates. Instead, they have only hand-written papers, making it complicated for compensation procedures, said Que.

In addition, there have been disagreements between the Dong Nai Rubber Corporation and units under the Ministry of National Defense over acquiring land for the expressway and resettlement areas. This has worsened the delays in site clearance.

Until now, none of the four resettlement projects slated to serve those affected by the site clearance have been completed.

Of them, Dong Nai authorities have only approved investment procedures for two, and they will not be completed until 2025.

Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway is one of three approved expressways aiming to serve the urgent transportation needs in the southern key economic region. The region includes HCMC and the provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc.

National Highway 51 is currently the only link between Bien Hoa and Vung Tau.

When put into use, the new expressway is expected to shorten the travel time between HCMC and Vung Tau from two hours to 70 minutes.

Obstacles to site clearance are also affecting the building of Ring Road No.3, which will run 90 km through Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An provinces.

Its first phase will stretch 76 km long, and each locality is in charge of clearing sites and building the section in its territory.

Until now, Dong Nai has cleared only 6% of the sites needed for building the ring road, while HCMC has cleared 95%, Binh Duong 44% and Long An 97%.

While work has already begun in the other four provinces, the contractor of the ring road section in Dong Nai had to send a statement to authorities asking for cleared sites to begin construction.

Explaining the tardiness in site clearance for the ring road section in Dong Nai, the Ministry of Transport said the origin of some land plots had not yet been determined and there were currently 169 houses of which the owners had yet to be identified.

Difficulties in hiring a consulting unit and the lack of agreement on land valuation methods have also been causes of delay.

Le Huu Thanh, vice chairman of Nhon Trach District, which the ring road will run through, said site clearance has been late because the province was tardy in approving the project and setting the boundary for the area that needed to be cleared.

"It was not until April that we received a decision on where to set the boundary maker to identify the area where the ring road will be built. Only after that decision could we make a plan for site clearance and compensation for approval," he said.

The entire Ring Road No.3 will run 6 km in Long An, and around 11 km each in Binh Duong and Dong Nai.

For the section in Dong Nai, the road will run 6.3 km through Nhon Trach.

While working with Dong Nai authorities on the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway on Monday, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan said local site clearance work was moving much slower than the plan set by the National Assembly and the government.

He asked the province to speed up work, and he agreed with a previous proposal by the province to relocate families affected by the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway to a resettlement area built for those affected by the Long Thanh airport project.

The airport, which is set to become the largest in Vietnam, is under construction in Dong Nai.