On January 10, the leader of Project Management Board 4, Ministry of Transport (MOT) said that the Vietnam Road Administration, Ministry of Transport has agreed to extend (for the third time) the completion time of the "Project to upgrade National Highway 7, section Km0 - Km36 and handle landslides caused by storms and floods, Khe Thoi - Nam Can section, Nghe An province" (QL7 Upgrade Project - PV). Specifically, the project has 3 construction packages that have been extended to be completed in the period from April 30, 2025 to July 18, 2025.

The National Highway 7 upgrade project is 27.5km long with a total investment of more than 1,300 billion VND.

The National Highway 7 upgrade project was approved by the Ministry of Transport on March 18, 2022 and officially started construction in September 2022. The project has an investment of more than VND 1,300 billion with a total length of 27.5 km passing through Dien Chau, Yen Thanh and Do Luong districts of Nghe An province. According to the plan, the 3 bid packages of the project will be completed in December 2023. However, when the deadline came, the project could not be completed as planned and was continuously requested for extensions.

During the construction process, there were many reasons for the project packages being behind schedule, mostly due to land clearance issues along the route. Households whose land was affected by the project did not accept the plan, compensation value, support, and site clearance compensation.

The report of Project Management Board 4 shows that, as of January 2025, the construction value of the project reached 559.5 billion VND/714.7 billion VND, reaching 78.2%. Up to now, the capital disbursed for the project has reached nearly 89%.

According to the leader of Project Management Board 4, due to the many delays in the site handover timelines compared to the commitment, the National Highway 7 Project has not been completed on schedule; greatly affecting traffic safety, environmental sanitation on the exploited route and the investment goals and efficiency. If the delay continues, the project is at risk of being stopped and its capital cut to be handed over to local management.

The project's delay has greatly affected traffic safety and environmental sanitation on the route.

Speaking with Tien Phong reporter , Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee (Nghe An) said that the district is asking for opinions from Nghe An Provincial Police to agree on a plan and time to organize protection for the construction of the project section passing through the district.

“In the past, the district has completed all the steps of propaganda, mobilization, explanation, dialogue, and handling of people's petitions regarding this project. However, many households still do not accept the support and compensation plan to hand over the site. Currently, the district has developed a plan for human and material resources to protect the construction site. In case anyone opposes, they will be invited to the police headquarters to work. The district will first develop a plan to protect the construction site in 3 communes and continue in the remaining communes,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee.

During the process of developing a plan to protect the project's construction, Yen Thanh district continued to mobilize functional forces to propagate and persuade people affected by the project to accept the support and compensation plan to hand over the site to the construction unit.

Ngoc Tu