Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha speaks at a working session with leaders of ministries, sectors, and provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, and Quang Binh on the afternoon of February 17 – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha accompanied the Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, the Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh, The Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Ha Tinh Hoang Trung Dung, leaders of ministries, central agencies, local authorities, Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), National Power Transmission Company (EVNNPT), management boards, investors, and contractors of the projects.
On the same day, the Deputy Prime Minister and the working delegation conducted on-site inspections of the implementation of the projects of the Dien Chau-Bai Vot and Bai Vot-Ham Nghi expressways, the 500 kV Quang Trach-Pho Noi circuit project; presenting gifts and encouraging leaders, workers, and staff working on the projects.
Leaders of ministries, sectors, and localities speak at the working session – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
At the meeting, the delegations reported on the situation of land clearance, handover of land, construction of projects; identified difficulties, tasks, solutions in the coming time, and made proposals and recommendations.
The 500 kV circuit project has a total length of 4 component projects, with a length of 519 km, connecting from Quang Trach (Quang Binh) to Pho Noi (Hung Yen) with a total investment capital of about 23,000 billion VND (nearly 1 billion USD). These projects all started in October 2023 and January 2024.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has requested that this power line be completed by June 2024 to increase electricity supply to the North, avoiding local power shortages like the peak in the summer of 2023.
According to EVN’s report, after the inspection of the Prime Minister’s delegation in two days from January 27-18, construction has been carried out simultaneously along the entire line; many difficulties and obstacles have also been resolved by coordinated units.
So far, a total of 1,114/1,180 (94%) of the foundation positions have been handed over. The entire project has 226 bid packages, and by now it has basically signed contracts (only 4 bid packages are still undergoing procedures and will be completed in the next few days).
Only from January 28 to the end of February 16, 2024, 38 foundation positions have been cast, an additional 421 foundation positions have been deployed for construction; and 733 foundation positions have been handed over.
Specific progress of the overall project and each component project.
However, the biggest obstacle to the project at present is the procedure for converting forest land, which requires a significant impact on the forest to open temporary roads to serve the construction of each component project; the construction work has difficulties in mobilizing machinery and equipment…
Deputy Prime Minister requested the units to continue to make the highest efforts, for the nation, for the people, to strive to complete the works on schedule – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Bac Giang – Lang Son East-West Expressway through the provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, and Quang Binh consists of 06 component projects.
Among them, in the period 2017-2020, there is a project from Dien Chau (Nghe An) to Bai Vot (Ha Tinh) invested in the form of BOT, with a length of 49.3 km, with a total investment of 13,339 billion VND, the expected construction time is 3 years. This project has basically completed land clearance work; the value of output of the contractors is 6,157/8,595 billion VND, equivalent to 72% of the contract value.
However, the progress of some items does not meet the requirements. There are also more than 6 km of road foundation that must wait until April-September 2024 to have enough time to remove the load, and the project is at risk of not ensuring the progress as required by the Prime Minister (to complete by April 30, 2024).
In the period 2021-2025, the Bai Vot (Ha Tinh)-Cam Lo (Quang Tri) section will be invested in 05 component projects by the Ministry of Transport as the managing agency, invested in the form of public investment with a total length of 259 km, and a total investment of over 49,207 billion VND, deployed and constructed from January 01, 2023, and expected to be completed in 2025.
For these 5 projects, the area of land handed over by now has reached 94%, but construction can only be organized within the scope of about 210/226.6 km, reaching 93%. Ha Tinh province has a high rate of land handed over for construction, reaching 99%. Quang Binh province has a slow pace of land delivery, reaching 88%. The remaining land areas are mostly residential land, and there are complex procedures for relocation and technical infrastructure related to many agencies and units.
Immediately after the groundbreaking of the 5 projects, the Ministry of Transport has directed units to take advantage of favorable weather conditions, concentrate resources to organize construction. Up to now, units have mobilized 2,118 types of machinery and equipment, 5,137 construction workers, 114 supervision and consulting personnel, and implemented 222 construction teams (123 for bridges, 99 for roads, tunnels and some other works on the route).
So far, the output of the 5 projects is about 8,329/30,410 billion VND, reaching 27.4% of the contract value, basically meeting the required progress. Some projects such as the Vung Ang-Bung, Bung-Van Ninh sections have good implementation progress.
However, Quang Binh province (Van Ninh-Cam Lo section) still has 2 sections of Ho Chi Minh road with a length of about 3.1 km that have not completed land clearance to execute the road to completely serve the construction of the main route. The construction of the relocation of resettlement areas (in Quang Binh), the relocation of technical infrastructure works, especially the high-voltage power system (in Ha Tinh), is slower than the set schedule. The extraction of sand is regulated from 7 am to 5 pm daily, so it has not met the requirement of “3 shifts, 4 teams” as directed by the Prime Minister.
In general, of the 6 expressway projects, in 2023, disbursement reached 47,199/47,881 billion VND, reaching 99% of the assigned plan.
The investors and localities have made a number of recommendations related to the above-mentioned expressway projects, such as immediate investment in the left branch of the Thanh Vu tunnel and 5 km of bridges to connect (on the Dien Chau-Bai Vot section) (phase 1 currently only constructing the right branch of the tunnel, the left branch is planned to be invested later); shift some sections to build land bridges in Quang Binh province; build additional interchanges (such as the interchange connecting to the VSIP Nghe An Industrial Park) to open up new development space and maximize the efficiency of the projects.
The agencies also proposed amending the regulations related to forest impacts according to Decree No. 156/2018/ND-CP detailing the implementation of some articles of the Forestry Law.
Deputy Prime Minister requested the agencies to continue to make the highest efforts, for the nation, for the people, to strive to complete the works on schedule – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
The results of the inspection, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized the goal of the inspection and working trip was to continue implementing the Prime Minister’s directives, strengthen the working methods of Government members to work with localities, to strengthen the close linkage between the central and local levels, to coordinate comprehensively and effectively among agencies in the implementation of the country’s key projects in the spirit of solving difficulties where they arise, and leave them behind where they are. After the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and the ministries will report fully to the Prime Minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha stated that there have been progress and positive changes in the implementation of projects thanks to the resolute directions of the Government, the Prime Minister, the responsibility, and efforts of ministries, local authorities, agencies, investors, project management boards, contractors, and the workforce.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha presents gifts from the Prime Minister and encourages officials, workers, and employees at the construction site – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
On behalf of the Government, Deputy Prime Minister acknowledged, commended, and highly appreciated the efforts of the relevant entities, especially the Party Committees and governments of the three provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, and Quang Binh and the support of the people in the three provinces for the specific results achieved in clearing the sites of the projects.
The projects in the implementation process have many difficulties and obstacles, but they have now regained the progress and are speeding up. The volume of work performed is very large. With the momentum on the construction site, the Deputy Prime Minister assessed that the projects can achieve the set goals. However, there are still difficulties and obstacles to meet the very tight schedule of the projects.
Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, departments, localities, agencies, investors, construction units, and consulting units to seriously and effectively implement the Prime Minister’s directives on expressway projects and the 500 kV circuit, in the spirit of “only discussing work, not retreating, eat at the best time, sleep urgently, overcome the sun, beat the rain, work 3 shifts, 4 teams, work through holidays and Tet”, ensuring progress, quality, technology, aesthetics of the projects and ensuring safety, hygiene, environment, anti-corruption, negative actions, and waste. Localities should focus on ensuring security and safety at the project implementation sites.
Deputy Prime Minister exchanges with relevant units during the on-site inspection of the project – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Regarding issues related to forest land, the Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to soon complete the Government’s report on the results of implementing Resolution No. 273/NQ-UBTVQH15 on the policy of converting forest, forest land, and rice land used for agriculture from two crops onwards for the road construction project of the East highway phase from 2021-2025, including the additional area; submit to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for consideration at the earliest session.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries and sectors urgently prepare the Government’s report for consideration and settlement of obstacles related to the provisions impacting the forest according to new Decree No. 156 to make temporary roads for the construction of the projects (after the project is completed, the forestland will be returned), initially reporting to the Government to issue a resolution on this content in the last week of February 2024; then continue to submit amendments to issue Decree 156 and related regulations to resolve this issue.
The relevant agencies along with investors, localities closely coordinate and effectively complete the clearance and handover of land for expressway and power line projects according to the assigned progress; the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment studies and issues general guidance for localities in dealing with difficult cases in determining land users.
Prior to that, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha inspected the progress of the Dien Chau-Bai Vot expressway project at the intersection with National Highway 46B – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac- Ảnh: VGP/Nhật Bắc
The Deputy Prime Minister also directed the handling of obstacles related to the relocation of technical infrastructure, including the construction of the high-voltage power system (the Ministry of Industry and Trade directed EVN to coordinate closely with localities and relevant units to work on this matter).
The Ministry of Construction will guide the method of determining material prices at mines for localities to announce the ground for approving the payment price for contractors building the expressway, including new materials such as sea sand.
Regarding the 500 kV circuit project, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the investor and the contractor to strictly implement the Prime Minister’s opinions on working with the Party Committees and local authorities to mobilize human resources and materials locally during the construction process. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was assigned to submit the Government’s early adjustment of land use indicators for energy projects to localities.
Deputy Prime Minister inspected the progress of the construction of the 500kV Quang Trach-Quynh Luu project located in the 500 kV circuit project Quang Trach-Pho Noi – Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
The Deputy Prime Minister requested the relevant agencies to continue making the highest efforts, for the nation, for the people, to strive to complete the works on schedule, with a number of works on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South, national reunification (April 30, 2025).
