Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has directed relevant agencies and localities to adopt solutions to ensure sources of construction materials for key transport projects in the Mekong Delta, especially sand for levelling.

Investment in transport projects in the region is necessary to help boost socio-economic development and ensure national defense and security in the region and the country, he added.

The Prime Minister recently called for measures to speed up the construction of projects in the region, including measures to help tackle difficulties relating to the need for materials for levelling in transport projects.

Following these guidelines, localities in the Mekong Delta coordinated with the Ministries of Transport and Natural Resources and Environment to introduce solutions to deal with material shortages. They granted 66 licenses to permit the exploitation of a total of around 80 million cu m of materials used for levelling. Exploitation capacity is 17 million cu m a year, including 14 million cu m of sand.

Sand reserves are currently estimated at 37 million cu m, meeting only 77 per cent of demand at projects. Demand is forecast to increase to 47.8 million cu m in the years to come as a series of expressway projects are implemented.