The Da Nang authorities have temporarily suspended the construction of the Bien Son Tra eco-tourism area project in Son Tra District’s Tho Quang Ward because a construction licence has not been granted by the city authorities.

Chairman Tho (centre) during the inspection visit

This decision was announced during a surprise inspection visit by some of the city leaders to the construction site on Sunday.  They were municipal People’s Committee (PC) Chairman Huynh Duc Tho, PC Vice Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, and some representatives from relevant local agencies.

The unlicensed project’s developer is the Bien Tien Sa JSC which is headquartered in the district.

It was reported that, to date, the foundations for 40 villas in part of the eco-resort project has been completed.  Also, the construction of the project’s internal roads, drainage systems, and other auxiliary facilities was underway.

According to the Chief Inspector from the city’s Construction Department, Mr Tran Van Dung, the city authorities gave the green light to the Bien Tien Sa JSC on 4 February 2009 to build only the internal roads and drainage systems at the site of the project, but not to begin the construction of the villas.

The already-completed foundations of some of the villas

During the inspection visit, Chairman Tho underlined that the local authorities had not granted a licence for the construction of the 40 villas or approved reports about the project’s environmental impact.  Therefore, this project would now be temporarily suspended.

Meanwhile, representatives from the project’s developer admitted their mistakes in not completing the relevant administrative procedures to deploy their project due to their hastiness to put the project into use as soon as possible.

The project is now under close watch by the local authorities.  The Son Tra District PC is currently charged with monitoring the suspension of the project, and the administrative penalties to be imposed on the developer will be determined very soon.

The Bien Tien Sa JSC was asked to apply as soon as possible to the city authorities for approval of their environmental impact assessments and for a licence for the construction of the villas.  If they do not, a strict punishment will be imposed on them in accordance with the national laws.

In a similar vein, the city’s authorities have also recently taken strong measures to prevent any further construction activities onto the site of another unlicensed project in the district, the Central Coast project at the intersection of Vo Nguyen Giap and Tran Huu Phuoc streets. 

A view of the Central Coast project

Located in the district’s Phuoc My Ward, the 43-storey condotel project is being developed by the Minh Dong Travel Service and Trading Ltd Co for a total investment of 1.2 trillion VND ($53 million).  The project’s contractor is the DoZa Construction JSC.  To date, construction of 10 floors has been completed.

Although there was no licence to deploy the project due to its land ownership complications and insufficient information about its registration dossiers, the investor had illegally begun the construction work. 

Earlier, on 10 March, a fine of 42 million VND (1,600 USD) was imposed on the project’s developer.  However, since that date, the developer has still continued with the project, regardless of the local authorities’ decision to stop the unlicensed project.