Authorities of Quang Ngai Province have asked the Government to suspend operations of a hydropower plant worth trillions of VND for illegal deforestation.

The Dak Re hydropower plant, funded by Thien Tan Co., was granted a construction permit on February 2 this yeas.

The VND2.3-trillion (US$102.2 million) project planned to cover an area of 176 ha over Kon Tum and Quang Ngai provinces, but the investor illegally chopped down and damaged a massive area of forest stretching nearly 11,000 sq.m, according to a report by the Quang Ngai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DoARD).

The affected zone overlapped with a DoARD forest recovery project in Ba To District.

Ba To Western Forest Management Board Director Nguyen Trong said the power plant’s workers destroyed the trees without permission from local authorities.

Thien Tan so far managed to build a road of about 700m into the forest to the construction site. It chopped down about 1,580 Erythrophleum fordii and Senna siamea trees.

The municipal People’s Committee asked the company to suspend construction immediately until the authorities finished their assessment on the damage caused by the investor.

VNS