On September 24, the leader of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province confirmed that he had received information about the direction of the Forestry Department - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development related to the Huong Linh 1 Wind Power Plant and Huong Linh 2 Wind Power Plant projects to build a number of wind power towers on forest land.
Previously, at the end of May 2024, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province sent a document to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, requesting implementation instructions for the above two wind power plant projects.
In the document of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province, it is stated that the Huong Linh 1 and Huong Linh 2 wind power plants and the 110kV transmission line have been put into stable operation, but there were violations and shortcomings in the project implementation process. Accordingly, the investor of the two wind power plants, Tan Hoan Cau Corporation Joint Stock Company, changed some construction locations and used land beyond the land area leased by the People's Committee of Quang Tri province.
In addition to the wind turbine construction sites leased by the People's Committee of Quang Tri province, Tan Hoan Cau Corporation has encroached and arbitrarily changed the land use purpose to build turbine towers; warehouses near transformer stations; and 110kV power line towers without permission from competent authorities.
In particular, the encroached area includes a part of protective forest land of the Huong Hoa - Dakrong Protective Forest Management Board and land managed by the People's Committee of Huong Linh commune.
At the request of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development assigned the Forestry Department to handle the matter.
Based on the information provided, on September 23, the Forestry Department issued a document requesting the People's Committee of Quang Tri province to direct competent authorities to review and determine the specific nature and extent of violations of the projects in order to strictly handle related organizations and individuals according to the law.
The Forest Protection Department noted that, in Clause 3 of Directive No. 13-CT/TW dated January 12, 2017 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in forest management, protection and development, it is stipulated that the suspension and land recovery of projects that change the purpose of forest use with violations must be resolutely suspended. The People's Committee of Quang Tri province is requested to direct the implementation in accordance with the above regulations of the Secretariat, the provisions of the Forestry Law and relevant laws.
Lao Dong Newspaper has published many articles and information about the fact that in 2 wind power projects with 30 turbines, more than 2/3 of the wind power towers were built outside the area licensed by the competent authority. In addition, 16 foundations of the 110kV power line were built on land that had not been permitted by the Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee to change the land use purpose and lease the land. In particular, the 2 wind power projects were built on 1.46 hectares of protective forest land.
Currently, the investor has been fined more than 600 million VND by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quang Tri province for the act of “land occupation”. It is known that the Quang Tri Provincial Police have taken the documents of the two wind power projects mentioned above.
