Accelerating the restoration and renovation of Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel

Taking advantage of the handed-over site, the investor and contractors of the Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel Restoration and Renovation Project are mobilizing machinery, equipment, and human resources to construct multiple items. To date, the project has reached over 65% of its workload. However, to complete it in 2026, obstacles in site clearance and technical infrastructure relocation need to be resolved soon.

Speeding up on the construction site

On the construction site of the Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel Restoration and Renovation Project, the construction atmosphere is quite urgent. Along the areas where the site has been handed over, machinery and equipment have been mobilized for construction; workers are focusing on implementing the remaining tasks. Each section of the earthen wall, drainage system, brick-paved road, and park areas are gradually being completed. The investor and contractors are taking advantage of every available site to organize construction, making up for the previously affected schedule.

The project commenced in December 2024. On the handed-over area, the contractor has simultaneously deployed multiple items. Among them, the group of items outside the earthen wall line, including: restoring and renovating the moat; building 1 new pumping station; repairing the concrete road along the outer boundary; building the Hau (Rear) gate bridge; renovating and embellishing the Nam (South), Dong (East), and Tay (West) gate bridges, has reached about 90% of the workload. The item of restoring and recovering the earthen wall line reached about 70%; the rainwater drainage system reached about 90%; the brick-paved road and public parks No. 3, 4, and 5 reached about 60%.

The project has also been adjusted to meet the requirements of preserving, renovating, and exploiting the value of the monument. On October 28, 2025, the Provincial People's Committee approved the adjustment of the investment policy, adding 3 items: building a new fence for the water supply pumping station; constructing railings along the concrete road on the embankment; paving the earthen wall line with bricks and whitewashing to embellish the city gates. The total investment after adjustment is more than 225.5 billion VND, an increase of about 60 billion VND due to increased site clearance costs; the project implementation period is extended to 2026.

With a relatively large remaining workload and limited time left, the Provincial Development Project Management Board has requested contractors to continue mobilizing maximum equipment, machinery, and human resources, actively organizing construction fronts in areas where the site has been handed over. The goal is to make the most of the time, accelerate the workload, and strive to complete the project in 2026.

Resolving site clearance obstacles soon

While many items are being accelerated, the biggest difficulty currently remains that the site has not been completely handed over. The fragmented and discontinuous handover of the site makes it difficult for the contractor to arrange construction fronts and build a synchronous implementation plan across the entire construction site.

According to the report, the project has 122 affected cases requiring site clearance, with an area of nearly 7.5 hectares. To date, functional agencies have inventoried and verified legal records for all cases. Among them, 120 cases have been paid, and 2 cases have not yet received the money. The land area recovered and handed over to the contractor is more than 7.2 hectares. However, the actual area where construction can be deployed is only about 6.7 hectares because the site is not contiguous. In addition, because some households have received compensation but are building houses in the resettlement area, they have not yet handed over the site. Therefore, some important items such as park No. 1, No. 2, a part of the brick-paved road adjacent to park No. 1, No. 2, and the southern gate still cannot be constructed.

Not only facing site clearance obstacles, the relocation of technical infrastructure works has not been completed either. Currently, there are still some water supply, electricity, lighting, traffic signal systems, VNPT and Viettel telecommunications, and police fiber optic cables that need to be relocated. These are tasks directly related to the ability to synchronously implement the project's items.

To resolve the bottlenecks, the Provincial Development Project Management Board proposed that the People's Committee of Dien Khanh Commune continue to strengthen information and propaganda about the goals and significance of the project; mobilize households with remaining obstacles in compensation and clearance to soon hand over clean sites to the investor and contractor. At the same time, the locality needs to coordinate and direct the Land Fund Development Branch of Dien Khanh area to accelerate the relocation of technical infrastructure, creating a continuous site for the contractor to organize construction.

The investor also requested residents living in the project area to cooperate, maintain general hygiene, and not discharge trash or wastewater into the construction area. For the handed-over site sections, contractors are required not to wait but to actively arrange human resources and machinery, increasing construction fronts to accelerate progress.

MANH HUNG - HOANG DUC