Hundreds of houses along the ongoing Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway are being damaged by construction on the road.

Although the road is due to open in September, many parts remain under construction. — Photo zing.vn

In Tinh Ha Commune, Son Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province, more than 250 homes had been affected by the highway. Dinh Thi Kim Anh, a local resident, told the online newspaper zing.vn that steamrollers had caused her house’s foundations to sink.

“Many cracks have appeared on the walls. The rainy season is coming and we don’t know if my house will resist storms and floods,” she said.

Many households affected by the highway construction said that compensation was too low for them to make repairs.

Nguyen Thanh Dinh, deputy head of Tinh Ha Commune People’s Committee, said that the expressway investors paid compensation to 151 households of between 500,000 VND and 12 million VND (21.5 - 516US$) each.

“There are 100 more houses damaged yet their owners have not received any compensation,” he said.
Meanwhile in Nui Thanh District in the central province of Quang Nam, amongst 53 damaged houses, only 22 households accepted the compensation, with the rest saying that the amount of money was too low to repair their houses and demanded another evaluation.

On 3 August, Dinh Van Thu, head of Quang Nam Province People’s Committee, asked the Ministry of Transport and Viet Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC) to develop a detailed plan to provide damaged houses with appropriate payments.

Responding to the demand, Transport Minister Nguyen Van The tasked VEC to collaborate with local authorities on evaluating 500 houses in affected areas in Quang Nam Province, Quang Ngai Province, and Da Nang to compensate for damage.

He also asked investors to solve all issues by the end of August in preparation for the road’s opening on 2 September.

The deployment of the large-scale project, the first of its kind in the central region, is part of the country’s expressway network development plans by 2020, with a vision towards 2030.

Work started on the 139.52km, 6-lane route in May 2013 at a total estimated cost of over 1.6 billion USD.

Of this, 798.5 million USD in loans is offered by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), whilst 590.3 million USD is lent by the World Bank (WB), and the remainder come from the national budget.

The expressway runs through Da Nang, and Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces.

As part of the expressway project, the 65km-long section between Da Nang’s Tuy Loan Village and Quang Nam Province’s Tam Ky City was opened to traffic in August 2017, and it has proved highly effective.

Meanwhile, the remaining section which links Tam Ky City with Quang Ngai Province now nearing completion.

(Source: VNS/ DA NANG Today)