Lai Chau power project receives a boost
(VOV) - Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai has asked the local government, investors and contractors of the Lai Chau hydro-electric power plant project to speed up resettlement and construction work to ensure the project is completed on schedule.
During an inspection tour of the project construction site on August 21, Hai assured the people that the government will prioritise investment for the project.
He encouraged Lai Chau province to make more efforts to improve the living conditions of 800 displaced households in the new resettlement areas from now until the end of the year.
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The Lai Chau hydro-electric power plant, one of the key national projects, got off the ground in 2011 in Nam Hang commune, Muong Te district, Lai Chau province.
The plant, which has three turbine groups with a total design capacity of 1,200MW, is expected to generate 4,670 million kWh a year as soon as it is completed in 2017.
It aims to generate electricity, supply water for the Red River delta during the dry season, and boost socio-economic development in Lai Chau and Dien Bien provinces, as well as safeguarding national defence and security in the country’s north-western region.
So far the local administration and project management unit have evacuated more than 60 households to the resettlement areas, to support the first phase of the damming of the Da River. Plans are in place to move more than 1,800 households from the flooded areas next year.
Le Trong Quang, Vice Chairman of the Lai Chau provincial People’s Committee, told Deputy PM Hai that the land clearance and resettlement work is on the right track and is well supported by both the local administration and displaced people.
The province suggested introducing socio-economic development policies early on, in the hope that it would make it easier for local people to develop production in the resettlement zone.
It also asked the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) to allocate additional funds for unfinished infrastructure and construction works to support local people in the new resettlement areas.
Together with the Lai Chau project in the north-western region, the Son La hydro-electric power plant, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, was put into operation in 2012, three years ahead of schedule.
More than 4,600 households were evacuated for the project and they had all received State compensations.