Project worth over VND1,800 billion stuck with 113m of site clearance
Currently, the specialized agencies of the People's Committee of Cu M'gar district (Dak Lak) are urgently completing the site clearance work for the Ho Chi Minh Road Construction Investment Project, the section avoiding the East of Buon Ma Thuot city, passing through the district.
This project is fully invested from central capital, with a total adjusted investment of more than VND 1,800 billion. Started in 2021, the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. However, due to problems in site clearance, the progress was delayed and extended to June 30, 2025.
Up to now, the site clearance work has not been completed. In particular, at the starting point of the project, there is still a 113m road through Cu M'gar district.
This area has 16 households affected. The Land Fund Development Center of Cu M'gar district is developing a compensation plan and submitting it to the competent authority for approval.
According to the People's Committee of Cu M'gar district, site clearance work in the locality is facing many difficulties, leading to delays in progress.
Relevant units are having difficulty in determining land origin, measuring, adjusting and extracting land plots. Some locations are not yet in accordance with the local land use planning until 2030, causing difficulties in the implementation of compensation and resettlement support plans.
These problems have caused the site clearance progress to be prolonged, seriously affecting the overall progress of the project. More worrying, the delay in handing over the ground can push the project to the risk of not being completed on time, the risk of losing investment capital from the central level.
In the Official Letter on 21.5.2025, the Ministry of Construction confirmed the site clearance of the project is still slow, not meeting the requirements as planned. The Ministry proposed that the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Dak Lak province drastically directed and completely handled the shortcomings.
In particular, if by May 30, 2025, the problems have not been resolved, the Ministry of Construction will consider the plan to zoning the project, hand over the unfinished part to the locality for management and arrange investment funds to complete it later.
Lessons learned from slow site clearance
The worry of losing the opportunity to complete a project worth more than VND1,800 billion is completely reasonable, because in Dak Lak province, there was a history of projects being left unfinished when the central government withdrew capital.
A typical example is Bridge 110 - a project connecting Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces, part of the Ho Chi Minh Road Upgrade and Expansion Investment Project, section Km1667+570 - Km1738+148 in Dak Lak.
The project was implemented in 2013 and completed in 2015. At that time, the 110 bridge was only repaired for damage and kept in its original state to ensure temporary operation.
However, at the request of the locality, the Ministry of Transport approved an adjustment and addition to the construction of a new bridge 110 next to the old bridge, with a total cost of about 24 billion VND, expected to be completed in 2017.
During the implementation process, the Ministry of Transport and the Ho Chi Minh Road Project Management Board have repeatedly sent documents to the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee. The authorities have even organized direct meetings, but the problems of site clearance have not been completely resolved.
As a result, by the end of the implementation time in 2018, the project only reached about 88% of the volume. The remaining weight of about 12% is mainly the road that can not be completed because it has not been handed over.
Since then, the new bridge has been abandoned, causing a waste of investment money. Meanwhile, the old bridge has seriously degraded, posing many potential risks to traffic safety.
