Vung Tau City is having many action programs to develop both urban and tourism synchronously, in which Ben Dinh Islet is identified as an important project to promote tourism and high-class urban services for the city.
[Perspective of new urban area of Ben Dinh island, Vung Tau city.]
According to the Plan of the People’s Committee of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on effective management and exploitation to serve the socio-economic development of riverside areas in the province in the period of 2020-2025, the new urban area of Ben Dinh island is identified as a key project with the nature of a new urban area linked with existing urban areas around. Therefore, the Vung Tau city government is determined to reclaim public land to turn this plan into reality.
According to the plan, the urban area of Ben Dinh island is located in Ward 5, Ward 9 and Ward Thang Nhi, Vung Tau city. The project has a total area of 110.77 hectares with a total investment of about 26,270 billion VND. The project is divided into construction items including 98.41 hectares of civil land and 12.36 hectares of non-civil land.
The Ben Dinh Island Urban Area Project can be connected to the surrounding external utility system in the area such as: 2 km from Vietsovpetro oil and gas port; 3.9 km from Vung Tau airport; 6 km from Vung Tau Marina; 6.7 km from Vung Tau Back Beach; 6.9 km from Vung Tau Front Beach; 7 km from Vung Tau Paradise Golf Course…
The Ben Dinh Island Urban Area Project was announced by the People’s Committee of Vung Tau City in coordination with the Department of Construction to approve the 1/2,000 scale zoning plan. Currently, the province is carrying out the 1/500 planning procedure to call for investment with the plan to auction the entire land.
According to statistics from the People’s Committee of Thang Nhi Ward, Ben Dinh Islet in Thang Nhi Ward has 12 cases of public land encroachment for housing, aquaculture, livestock and poultry farming over the past decades, seriously affecting the general land management in the area.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, Vice Chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Thang Nhi Ward, said that all households encroaching on land in Ben Dinh Islet could not provide legal land documents as prescribed. Therefore, the authorities carried out enforcement and recovery, including: Relocating all people and assets, demolishing constructions, scrap assets, and waste from the area before handing it over to the management unit.
With an area of about 2,000 m2 in Ben Dinh Islet, Mr. Bui Cong San’s family not only occupied the land to build a house but also raised a lot of livestock and poultry on the land, causing serious pollution to the surrounding environment.
Although Vung Tau City has repeatedly urged people to voluntarily relocate their livestock, dismantle temporary houses, and return the land to the State, Mr. San’s family still did not comply. At the end of October, the city’s functional forces forced Mr. San’s family to take back 2,000 m2 of public land managed by the State.
Similar to Thang Nhi ward, many households in Ward 5 and Ward 9 also encroached on public land in Ben Dinh islet area for livestock and aquaculture. All three wards (Ward 5, Ward 9 and Thang Nhi ward) have 25 households and individuals encroaching on public land in Ben Dinh islet area which is subject to forced confiscation and recovery of public land managed by the State with a total area of nearly 38 hectares.
Mr. Nguyen Trong Thuy, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Vung Tau City, said: “We have mobilized and propagated to people who encroached on public land in the Ben Dinh Islet area. Accordingly, the entire area of nearly 38 hectares, people cannot prove the origin of land use and are occupying it for temporary housing and small-scale aquaculture, so they are not eligible for compensation and support. The authorities have also announced that they will reclaim the land for more than a year now. Since then, they have asked people not to release juveniles or raise livestock to avoid losses. However, people still do not comply. Therefore, when forced, losses are inevitable. In cases of intentional violations, they will be handled according to the provisions of the law.”
According to the report of Vung Tau city, the enforcement of all 25 cases of land encroachment in Ben Dinh island area has been basically completed. The city requested all localities to clean up the dismantled parts from the land before handing it over to the Vung Tau City Land Fund Development Center for management.
At the same time, the authorities also demolished the embankments and boundary banks of the aquaculture area to demarcate and protect the reclaimed area, avoiding the situation of people re-encroaching and using it.
Mr. Thuy added that the recovery of 58.4 hectares of public land in Ben Dinh Islet is an important task of the province and Vung Tau City to restore order in land management to put this land fund into implementation of the new urban planning approved by the Prime Minister. The People’s Committee of Vung Tau City has cleared the area of 54.3 hectares due to land recovery by the State and 4.1 hectares of clean land. Thus, up to now, 58.4 hectares of Ben Dinh Islet are eligible to be handed over to the Provincial Land Fund Development Center for management according to regulations to implement the next land use plans.
[Original article Để cù lao Bến Đình trở thành đô thị mới hiện đại published at nhandan.vn. Translation by Google Translate.]
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