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Investor complains of losses as parking lot project halted again
The Dong Duong Company says it has spent VND30 billion (US$1.8 million) for naught investing in a parking lot project that Ho Chi Minh City authorities have delayed for years.
Dong Duong (DDC) said it had complained to the city’s Communist Party Unit and the HCMC People’s Committee earlier this month, requesting permission to continue the project.
The company also said it could prove the feasibility and safety of its project, suggesting that the People’s Committee meet with experts from the Ministry of Construction to approve the continuation.
On July 7, the People’s Committee halted the Lam Son Square underground parking lot project before ground had even been broken, saying the site was too close to the Opera House and the site of a future metro line.
Dong Duong was originally contracted by the People’s Committee to build the underground parking lot at Lam Son Square in September 2004.
Since then, the company has signed 12 contracts with both local and foreign contractors, including five construction companies to which 100 percent of the contracts have been paid, totaling nearly VND11 billion ($656,000).
“We have invested over VND30 billion in the project,” DDC Vice General Director Nguyen Thi Bao Quynh said.
“The amount doesn’t include the other costs for the experts and engineers we’ve hired in the last four years.”
Plans for the project were initially halted in April 2005 as city authorities debated the impact the project would have on the proposed metro system.
In September that year, municipal agencies gave DDC the nod to continue with its plans.
The project has been modified six times in total and did not receive its investment license until March 2008.
DDC intended to break ground on April 26, with its slated completion date only two years away, but the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the company must first submit its project design for appraisal and approval.
DDC said the department then failed to issue its appraisal on the scheduled date, July 4, claiming to have lost the documents.
Standing Vice Chairman of HCMC Association for Construction, Science and Technology Phan Phung Sanh said DDC had invested a large sum of money in the project over the last four years and that he was not sure who would compensate the company if the project is canceled.
Thanhnien
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