The 2.1 km long Dam Hong - Giai Phong route is designed to run from the Dam Hong Lake in Khuong Trung Ward of Thanh Xuan District to the Giai Phong-Kim Dong intersection.
More than 18 years since it began construction, less than half of the VND1,300 billion ($55.9 million) project has been completed.
On December 12, over a dozen workers worked on the sewer system of the project in Dinh Cong Ward, Hoang Mai District.
Workers work with iron rods that will form the framework for the underground sewer.
One worker said that the project resumed a week ago after local authorities managed to clear land from a number of households in Dinh Cong Ward, next to Thanh Xuan District.
The Hanoi People's Committee has to acquire 67,125 m2 of land in Dinh Cong Ward, Thinh Liet Ward of Hoang Mai District and Khuong Dinh Ward of Thanh Xuan District. By the end of November, land clearance had been completed in the Thanh Xuan District area. In Hoang Mai District, 80 households with 588 people have not accepted compensation for the clearance.
On the planning map, the route is shaped like an arc as it goes through the Dinh Cong urban area. This prompted dozens of people in Dinh Cong and Thinh Liet Ward to protest the project, saying that it violated the prime minister's planning decisions between 1998 and 2002, that it shaped this route from straight to curved, causing people to lose their lands and homes.
Dozens of houses in Dinh Cong and Thinh Liet Ward have just been demolished. Other houses are still standing because their owners have not approved the compensation offer.
According to the leaders of Hoang Mai District, the alignment, boundary line and markers of ring road 2.5 have complied with the project that the prime minister approved in 1992. They insist that there is no deviation or correction from straight to curved.
The project has a bridge that crosses over a section of the Lu River in Dinh Cong Ward. Over the past four years, only the base of the bridge has been built because there’s no space left to continue construction.
Hoang Mai District officials expect that a plan for enforcement and land acquisition for the remaining area will be implemented this month to facilitate further construction of the project.
Land clearance has been completed at an end point of the project in Thinh Liet Ward, but no construction has taken place here for several years now.
Some people have started growing vegetables and fruits on the vacant land. Phan Van Vinh, a resident of Thinh Liet Ward, said: “Four years ago, this land housed two blocks of a state company and after clearance was completed, no construction has taken place. To save this place from turning into a landfill, people decided to grow vegetables on it.”
Explaining the project’s difficulties and problems, a representative of Hoang Mai District People's Committee said adjustments to the land law made site clearance really difficult. The project has also encountered strong objections from residents over planning, demarcation, landmarks, legal documents and site clearance policy, causing long delays.
Apart from the sections that are under construction or have not finished land clearance, the route has a few hundred of meters in the Dinh Cong urban area, named Tran Dien Street, which has been completed and been open to traffic for over three years.
An official from Hoang Mai District said that land clearance has to be completed by the third quarter of 2021 so that investors can finish construction and have the road open to traffic by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
A section of the unfinished road is 40 meters wide. Flowering shrubs have been planted on the median strip.
