Overlapping route needs to be adjusted
On August 13, Mr. Le Anh Son - Deputy Director of the Department of Construction of Ha Tinh province - said that this department has just issued a document proposing to adjust the route of the North-South high-speed railway project due to many shortcomings and overlaps.
Accordingly, through review, the route of this railway project affects Ca Temple in Bac Hong Linh ward, Van Tho Parish Church in Can Loc commune, 110kV transformer station in Nam Hong Linh ward, Bac Thach Ha Industrial Park in Viet Xuyen commune, Ca Cuong soil mine in Song Tri ward, water plant in Cam Xuyen commune...
In particular, the section passing through Cam Xuyen and Cam Hung communes is overlapping with the main route and rest stops of the North - South expressway project in the East.
Regarding this content, the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province and the Department of Construction of Ha Tinh have sent many documents to the Ministry of Construction. The Department of Construction of Ha Tinh has also invited the Railway Project Management Board (QLDA) to work directly with the locality, but so far the official route plan has not been finalized.
According to Mr. Son, implementing site clearance (GPMB) when the route plan may still have many locations adjusted will pose a risk of having to be adjusted, causing waste of resources and affecting progress.
In addition, the large volume of land acquisition, expected to affect nearly 1,350 households with residential land needs to be resettled, along with a series of essential technical and social infrastructure works that must be relocated, but currently the locality has only been provided with preliminary land acquisition boundaries, and the deposit coordinates and boundary markers have not been handed over to the site.
"It is necessary to soon have unified guidance on the scope of implementation of compensation, support and resettlement contents based on preliminary design, as well as soon agree on route direction, speed up the progress of handing over land clearance markers so that localities have sufficient legal conditions and effectively organize synchronous, timely and on schedule implementation according to the direction of the National Assembly and the Government," said Mr. Son.
It is necessary to clearly understand the authority for compensation and resettlement
According to Deputy Director of the Ha Tinh Department of Construction Le Anh Son, Decree No. 151 of 2025 of the Government stipulates that the People's Committees/Chairmen of the People's Committees at the commune level are responsible for investing in resettlement construction; approving plans (including plans to relocate cemeteries, relocate technical infrastructure works) and organizing compensation, support, and resettlement.
However, Clause 1, Article 34 of the Railway Law and Notice No. 376 of the Government Office stipulates that "The People's Committees at the provincial level with projects passing through shall establish, appraise, and decide to invest in component projects and independent component projects on compensation, support, and resettlement".
This content can be understood as independent component projects on compensation, support, and resettlement that must be approved by the Provincial People's Committee/Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.
With the above-mentioned overlapping and inconsistent regulations, Ha Tinh province recommends having clearer and more specific instructions on the authority to approve compensation and resettlement.
The Ha Tinh Department of Construction also requested the Ministry of Construction and competent authorities to guide localities in handling cases where the actual number of households that need to be relocated and resettled may increase or decrease (according to the GPMB milestone handed over based on the feasibility study report) during the implementation process, leading to the risk of redundancy in the scale of resettlement areas that have been planned and built based on the preliminary design documents in the Pre-Feasibility Study Report.
In addition, according to the preliminary GPMB boundary documents established on the basis of the approved pre-feasibility study report, the scope of GPMB at river crossing locations is being determined according to the entire scope of bridge protection as prescribed in Article 10 of Decree No. 456 of 2018 of the Government.
This regulation leads to the determination of the scope of land acquisition in a horizontal manner as too wide, causing difficulties in implementation. For example, for bridges over 300m long, the GPMB scope in urban areas is about 212m, outside urban areas is about 312m. Meanwhile, for other construction items on the route, the GPMB scope is determined to be significantly smaller, typically the station area, with a maximum of about 110m.
Therefore, the volume of site clearance at river crossing locations is very large, causing great pressure on costs, land fund and implementation progress. Therefore, Ha Tinh province recommends that the Ministry of Construction study and advise competent authorities to consider amending and adjusting to reduce the scope of bridge protection for river bridges, thereby reducing the scope of site clearance to facilitate site clearance and ensure the investment efficiency of the project.
