Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The13 provinces the North-South Expressway runs through have sped upland clearance to hand over land for the project before June 30.

Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa,Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan,Dong Nai, Tien Giang and Vinh Long provinces have all made the efforts.

Dong Nai was the first provinceto basically finish land clearance work and ready to hand over the land for theproject, while Nghe An was the slowest and has completed only 77 percent of thework so far.

Land clearance progress in theother localities has exceeded 80 percent on average. 

For example, land clearanceprogress has hit 83 percent in northern Ninh Binh province.

Vu Van Luan, Chairman of thePeople’s Committee of Khanh Hoa commune in Ninh Binh province, said about700 households were affected by land transfers in the commune.

The committee was negotiatingwith the last 40 households for compensation, he said.

The committee would finish landclearance for the project by June 30, Luan added.

In Thanh Hoa province – wherenearly 105km of the expressway runs through, it is estimated some 9,168households were affected due to the project.

Land clearance progress hasreached 92.2 percent, Giao Thong (Transport)online newspaper reported.

Nguyen Duc Trung, DeputyDirector of the provincial Transport Department, said the department hadordered district authorities to speed up to ensure all land for theproject is handed over before June 30.

Nguyen Duc An, Deputy Directorof the Transport Department of Nghe An province, said the major reason for thelocality's delay was slow construction of resettlement areas.

To hand over the land fundbefore the deadline, the province planned to offer affected householdsmoney to rent houses to temporarily live in until the resettlement areas werefinished, An said.

Deputy Minister of Transport NguyenNhat said the land clearance for the project was being implementedurgently and seriously.

Nhat said the sooner thelocalities complete land clearance, the sooner they would be ableto disburse the public investment capital they were allocated from theState budget.

However, Nhat also ordered thelocalities to quickly finish their construction of resettlement areas andrelocation of technical infrastructure works, including telecommunicationcables and power lines, within the project scale.

Previously, Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc sent a message last month to direct localities to solve problemsin the project’s land clearance.

PM Phuc ordered the Secretaryof the Party Committee and Chairpersons of the People’s Committee of eachlocality to consider land clearance work for the project an important andurgent task.

He also asked localities toquickly implement the completion of 114 resettlement areas in the secondquarter of this year to relocate affected households.

There are 11 sub-projects underthe North-South Expressway Project, with a total length of 654km.

The total investment of thesub-projects is about 118.7 trillion VND (5 billion USD). The fund for landclearance is about 12.4 trillion VND (529,000 USD)./.