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According to the Ministry of Transport, 10 subprojects (from Ha Tinh Province to Khanh Hoa Province) of the North – South Expressway one demand around 17.1 million cubic meters of stone, 8.95 million cubic meters of sand, and 45.3 million cubic meters of soil. However, the total capacities of stone and sand exploitation in the areas only reach 6.4 million cubic meters and 1.76 cubic meters per year, respectively, along with a shortage of 3 million cubic meters of soil.
Particularly, the Can Tho – Hau Giang Expressway subproject and Hau Giang – Ca Mau Expressway subproject are in dire need of sand, and the use of sea sand is not technically evaluated until the end of this year.
Therefore, the consultation unit is assessing 102 stone mines, 114 sand mines, and 109 soil mines to satisfy this high demand of the projects. Sadly, even with the application of a mechanism to increase the capacity of mines in the Central regions by 50 percent like what have been done with those in the Mekong Delta, this material thirst can still hardly be eased.
Hence, besides proposing that Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha direct localities to urgently increase the exploitation capacity of approved stone, soil, and sand mines, the Transport Ministry asked that the People’s Committees of the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, and Vinh Long instruct investors and contractors to complete necessary procedures to open new mines this January, together with a capacity rise of current mines in order to provide sufficient materials for the subprojects.
