Localities asked to speed up transport projects

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry of Transport has called on localities to speed up the construction of transport projects as many are reportedly lagging behind schedule.

The request was made by Minister Nguyen Van Thang at an online meeting between the transport ministry with local departments of transport to review the progress, quality and disbursement of assigned transportation projects.

As many as 30 transportation projects with a total investment of 20.3 trillion VND (864 million USD) are assigned to the Department of Transport and Project Management Unit (PMU) of Dak Lak province. Of 18 ongoing constructions, there are 10 behind schedule that were unable to be completed in 2022.

Delays are blamed on difficulties in land clearance in the areas of these projects. Many projects have recalled the costs of land clearance higher than the fund given. For example, the Highway 32 project between Hien Luong and Yen Bai city got delayed since the cost for clearance exceeded 100 billion VND (4 million USD).

The Transport Construction Investment Management Authority also mentioned some projects due to finish in 2023 but may be delayed. The reasons are the slow progress in construction, difficulties in land clearance of which costs exceeded the fund given, long settlement as well as scarce sources of sand materials for construction.

Some contractors have not gathered enough equipment and finance to start work.

Thang confirmed that the Ministry of Transport will fully allocate capital to meet construction progress.

“With the projects headed by local PMU and Department of Transport, if they can push the project, push it to the maximum,” Minister Thang said. “The Ministry of Transport will fully allocate funds to meet construction progress.”

In 2023, the ministry received 94.1 trillion VND (4 billion USD) from the State budget. Up to now, they have detailed plans on capital to allocate to transportation projects. Accordingly, the projects that are headed by the local departments of transport were assigned 2.8 trillion VND (110 million USD), accounting for 3% of the total capital.

With projects due to finish in 2023, Minister Thang urged contractors to accumulate the workload to finish it this year. With those that haven’t finished in 2022, the minister urged local departments to complete procedures to update progress and completion time after being approved by the Prime Minister./.

VNA