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Disgruntled residents trapped by delayed projects

Date: 8/4/2009 12:13:20 PM

Southern residents say they are fed up after years of being unable to renovate their homes or move due to slow-moving development projects.

A zoning map in front of the Hiep Hoa Commune People’s Committee in Dong Nai Province which has been in place for 15 years despite no construction being carried out.

Many residents in Dong Nai Province and nearby Ho Chi Minh City say they are angry at being barred from repairing their homes or building new ones for the past decade, because they live in areas zoned years ago for new public projects.

In 1997, an urban planning committee announced that the entire 342.5 hectares of Dong Nai Province’s Thong Nhat Ward in Bien Hoa Town would be transformed into a new residential area, a new administrative center for the town, and the new home of several provincial administrative offices.

The projects would affect thousands of families living in the area who would eventually have to move off the land and need to be financially compensated. In the meantime, however, residents received notification that they were prohibited from performing any renovations on their homes or building new ones in the area.

Yet it wasn’t until 2007 that the provincial government officially approved the first two projects, and to date, the province has not been able to come up with the VND1.3 trillion (US$73 million) needed to initiate the projects and reimburse the area’s 1,700 residents.

Resident Bui Si Hoang says he has waited more than 10 years now for information on when he will be compensated. “My children got married and I couldn’t build them a house,” he says, adding that he is trapped because he can’t afford to move or build outside the area until he receives compensation from the government.

In total, 43 similar projects have been delayed in Thong Nhat Ward over the years. Several meetings were held in the past to determine that work on the Bien Hoa administrative center, which will offer a new home to the town People’s Committee, would commence in the fourth quarter last year.

Yet in November 2008, the provincial government decided to move the committee headquarters to Long Thanh District instead, citing difficulty in relocating residents in the area. A committee officer said the new relocation plan was still far from being carried out, despite the urgent need for a new office.

More areas, residents affected

Another area in Bien Hoa Town, Hiep Hoa Commune, was slated to become an ecological resort in 1999, but to date, the project has yet to be approved. A signboard advertising the project has been in place for the past eight years, despite the fact that no work has been done.

Nine hectares of the commune were also designated for a new housing area and more than 35.6 hectares for other projects, of which none have been carried out so far.

Around 200 Hiep Hoa Commune families have to exercise caution every time they want to perform even the most basic upgrades on their houses while it is illegal to build any new homes or structures in the commune.

Local resident and homeowner Nguyen Van Hoa says he has asked many times for a permit to carry out restoration work on his house, but is always refused as the area is slated for future construction.

Resident Tran Thi My Dung was paid a visit by inspectors last month as she was having her floor covered in a new coat of cement. “The inspectors only left when I explained that the old floor was badly damaged,” Dung said.

Head of Hoa An Commune, Tran Van Ngoc, says his office has asked the provincial government many times to revoke the slow-moving projects, but the province has so far only dealt with one.

In HCMC, the municipal administration has cancelled 64 projects to date due to their slow progression, which cover a total area of 6.4 million square meters. However, many more projects have not been revoked despite being delayed up to 10 years and affecting thousands of city households.

Among them is the Binh Trieu Railway Station project in Thu Duc District’s Hiep Binh Chanh Ward. The project was designed on an area of 62 hectares in 2002 but no construction has been carried out since then.

Another project to construct a 12- hectare villa area in District 9 should have broken ground in 2001 with an expected completion date in 2003. But the project has also been delayed without a publicized explanation.

Other projects, which were approved 12-17 years ago and have still not been carried out, include a park project in Go Vap District; and a residential, university, park complex and the Vinh Loc eco-cultural project in Binh Chanh District.

Between 2003 and 2007, a total area of 12,586 hectares in HCMC has been granted or leased out for 1,601 projects, according to statistics from the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment. Of the total area, 4,083 hectares were intended for residential projects, while the rest was for projects for production, trading, and public infrastructure construction.

(Source:TN)

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