Difficulty in site clearance
We went to Dien Khanh commune, Khanh Hoa province in early August and witnessed with our own eyes the implementation of the project to restore and embellish the Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel National Monument, which is taking place but not as smoothly as initially expected. According to records, the project site is in disarray, many items are still under construction.
In the moat area, excavators and bulldozers are leveling and filling the ground; many trucks carrying soil are continuously entering and exiting the moat area. The site clearance work for the project has not yet been completed, many households are still living in the project area...
Talking to reporters of Van Hoa Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien, Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Development Management Board, said: The project to restore and embellish Dien Khanh Citadel relic is invested by Khanh Hoa Provincial Development Management Board, implemented in Dien Khanh commune (formerly Dien Khanh town), Khanh Hoa province. The total investment of the project is 167 billion VND, with capital from the provincial budget and the Career Development Fund of the Monument Conservation Center.
The project is expected to be implemented from 2022 to 2025. According to Decision No. 3413/QD-UBND dated December 29, 2023 and Adjustment Decision No. 1943/QD-UBND dated June 30, 2025 of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, the project has objectives and scale including 12 main items.
The implementation of the project to restore and embellish the Dien Khanh Citadel relic is currently facing many difficulties. Due to the unfinished site clearance work, the contractor (a joint venture of Construction Joint Stock Company No. 9 and Khanh Hoa Road Construction and Management Joint Stock Company) has only completed about 45% of the total contract value.
Specifically, the items have been completed with high progress, reaching about 75% of the volume, including: Restoring and embellishing Ho Thanh moat; building a new pumping station; repairing concrete roads along the outer boundary; building Cong Hau bridge; embellishing and refurbishing the bridges of the South gate, East gate, West gate; and installing an artistic lighting system for the bridges and gates.
In addition, some other items have only reached about 15% of the volume, including: Internal protective boundary road, parking lot, buffer space, fire protection and drainage system (PCCC) and lighting system.
The remaining items are completely stalled due to site clearance issues and cannot be handed over for construction. These items include: repairing and restoring the earthen ramparts and trees along the ramparts; building small parks and public restrooms.
Urge early completion of the project
According to the report of Khanh Hoa Provincial Development Management Board, recently, Dien Khanh Commune People's Committee has actively directed the implementation of site clearance, but there are still many problems that need to be resolved because some households have not agreed.
Specifically, 122 cases (including 9 organizations and 113 households and individuals) have been inventoried and their legal documents have been verified. Compensation, support and resettlement plans have been approved for 86/122 cases. Of these, 61 cases have been paid, while 25 cases have not yet received the money.
Completed the relocation of a number of important infrastructure items, including: Gate and fence of Phan Chu Trinh Secondary School; office of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union of Dien Khanh district; Viettel telecommunications system and the old headquarters of Dien Khanh District Land Fund Development Center.
However, some other items have not been completed, including: The entire water supply, electricity, lighting and traffic light systems have not been relocated; VNPT 's telecommunications systems and Police cables are waiting to be deployed; the dismantling of Dien Khanh Vocational College's second facility is expected to be completed by the end of August 2025.
Notably, two particularly important items are awaiting direction. The dismantling and completion of the fence of Regiment 974 (under the Khanh Hoa Provincial Military Command) requires opinions from Military Region 5, while the dismantling and completion of the fence of Dien Khanh District Police (under the Khanh Hoa Provincial Police) is awaiting opinions from the Ministry of Public Security.
Regarding the upcoming construction implementation plan, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien said that the unit will continue to monitor and urge the locality in the project site clearance work to continue synchronously implementing construction items on the handed over site.
Dien Khanh Citadel is one of the most valuable historical and cultural relics of Agarwood land, recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a national historical and cultural relic in 1988. The citadel was built and completed in 1793, on an area of about 36,000m2, a military architectural complex in the Vauban style, a popular military citadel model in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The inner city was built like a miniature citadel with a royal palace, a flagpole, the Governor's Palace, the Judge's Palace, the Commander's Palace and below was the Tham Tri Palace. In addition, in the citadel there was also a massive warehouse and a prison built with high, solid stone walls... Dien Khanh ancient citadel had 6 gates, but the Left and Right gates were filled in 1823, so now there are only 4 gates: East - West - Front (south) - Back (north). Over hundreds of years, natural weathering has caused many items of the citadel to deteriorate.
Dien Khanh ancient citadel has a hexagonal shape but the sides are not equal, the citadel wall is made of earth about 3.5m high. Outside the citadel wall is a moat 3m - 5m deep, 20m - 30m wide, combined with rows of thorny bamboo on the citadel wall to create a defensive fence surrounding the citadel to protect the citadel according to Vietnamese tradition.
The Dien Khanh Ancient Citadel Restoration and Rehabilitation Project has 12 items, including: Restoration, restoration and rehabilitation of the earthen rampart; construction of a new brick-paved road outside along the inner protection boundary; construction of 3 parking lots (in the buffer zone); construction of 2 new public restrooms (in parks No. 1 and No. 3); construction of a new arch bridge across the moat at the North gate (Hau gate); construction of 5 small parks (at the corners of the rampart);
Renovate the appearance of the bridges at the South Gate (Front Gate), East Gate, and West Gate; Build a new water supply and drainage system for the moat surrounding the Citadel and a wastewater collection system; build a new lighting system for the entire area inside the Citadel;
Dredging mud and cleaning the trench bed, trench roof and waterproofing the trench walls and bottom (trench wall protection); building a new pumping station to bring water into the trench, installing a 3-phase power system to supply the pumping station; planting trees along one side of the 6m wide road along the inner protection boundary.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/khanh-hoa-tu-bo-ton-tao-di-tich-thanh-co-dien-khanh-chua-hen-ngay-ve-dich-158670.html
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