A project to build a road linking National Highway 3 and industrial zones in Hà Nội’s Sóc Sơn District was approved in 2009, but land clearance work is still incomplete, reported Kinh Tế & Đô Thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) Newspaper.– Photo kinhtedothi.vn

HÀ NỘI – A project to build a road linking National Highway 3 and industrial zones in Hà Nội’s Sóc Sơn District was approved in 2009, but land clearance work is still incomplete, reported Kinh Tế & Đô Thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) Newspaper.

The stagnant progress has been causing difficulties for local people.

After the project was approved, Nguyễn Văn Minh’s land in Hương Đình Village of Mai Đình Commune was to be used for the project, meaning his family would have to move.

But for 10 years, his 12-member family has been living in the same place because no resettlement land has been allocated.

His house is small and run-down, but he has been forbidden from upgrading or rebuilding it as the land belongs to the project.

“The house is too small for 12 people but I can not upgrade or rebuild because my house is on project land”, Minh told the paper.

“The small living space has seriously affected our lives”, he added.

Minh was one of the dozens of families affected by the project’s ground clearance, the paper said.

The stagnancy of ground clearance has pushed many households into difficulties because they had nowhere else to go, yet were not permitted to rebuild  their houses, not even to build infrastructure for agricultural production.

The project, worth VNĐ360 billion (US$15.4 million), started in December 2010 with initial funding of VNĐ216.3 billion (US$9.2 million) allocated by Hà Nôi.

Four years later, the project was suspended due to a lack of funds for 2014-2016.

For 2017-2018, Sóc Sơn District was provided VNĐ120 billion (US$5.1 million) to continue the project.

However, for the last two years, the ground clearance work has been at a standstill because there was no land for resettlement.

Local authorities blamed residents for the slow land clearance.

Sóc Sơn’s project management board’s vice director Nguyễn Bá Hoàng said “because the project lasted for nearly 10 years, 19 families whose lands would be revoked for the project rebuilt their houses or other production infrastructure facilities”.

“As per regulations, the families would be offered 10 per cent of the construction cost as compensation but the locals asked for 100 per cent of the expense”, he said.

The district had asked the municipal authority to increase the compensation but the request was rejected, Hoàng said.

Recently, the project management board asked the municipal authority to move 19 households to a resettlement area in Hương Đình Village of Mai Đình Commune.

This would keep the families in the same commune, said Hoàng.

“The households were asked to accept the compensation and agree to move to new places to help complete the road project”, Sóc Sơn District’s People's Committee vice chairman Đỗ Minh Tuấn told the paper.

They might be forced to move if they don’t comply, Tuấn said. — VNS