The project to expand a 14-km stretch of Highway No 1 in central Quang Tri Province is lagging far behind schedule, with only 1km of road cleared in the first year.

Part of construction of national highway No1 in Tinh Tra Commune, central Quang Ngai Province’s Son Tinh District.

The total expense of the project is VND536 billion (US$30million), of which the Government is responsible for VND5 billion ($300,000) and Truong Thinh company will contribute the rest.

Le Canh Bien, vice chairman of the People’s Committee for Trieu Phong District, in which 6 km of the highway in the project runs through, said Truong Thinh Ltd changed the design which delayed the project. “We started determining which houses needed to be removed, but the company changed its original design which meant we couldn’t start the house clearance project until June,” Bien said.

He also blamed the change in the compensation rule for land confiscation as a cause of confusion and delays. Governmental Decree No 69 on land use, compensation and resettlement came into effect and increased the compensation rate. Residents, who were compensated at the old rate, were upset and asked for additional funds.

The local authority has made a proposal to compensate at the new rate and submitted it to the Quang Tri People’s Committee. There has been no official decision made yet by the Quang Tri People’s Committee on the matter, said Bien.

Vo Minh Hoai, general director of Truong Thinh Ltd concurred that compensation issues were delaying the project. He denied that there were changes in the technical design. Hoai said, “We didn’t change anything. We just set up new landmarks for the project.”

Even though Truong Thinh is the construction company for this project, the local government is in charge of land clearance. Hoai said that Truong Thinh has to wait until the land is completely cleared and then would accelerate the construction process. However, even with faster construction the completion date will have to be extended.

Residents in Quang Tri where the projects run through were not happy with this slow process. Phan Hong Tu, a resident in Quang Tri Town said that his family is living in a temporary one-storey house which has leaks all over the roof. Tu hoped that the government would speed up the compensation process, so his family could move to a better place.

Le Dinh Can in Trieu Phong District laughed when asked about the construction progress: “Not even one kilometre of the road was cleared.”

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News