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Urban upgrade project too slow, say officials
Sluggish site clearance has considerably slowed down ODA (Official development assistance) disbursement for the HCM City Urban Upgrade Project as well as the progress of the project itself.
A project evaluation meeting of the city legislature's Economic-Budget Board held on Monday found that the project was lagging behind efficiency commitments made to the World Bank.
The project is part of the 2004-2012 Viet Nam Urban Upgrade Programme that aims to upgrade infrastructure, improve the environment and living conditions of more than one million low-income people in four cities and provinces – HCM City, Can Tho, Hai Phong and Nam Dinh.
For the HCM City Urban Upgrade Project disbursement so far has reached about US$80 million, far from the total investment capital of $592.7 million of which ODA loans account for US$266.8 million.
Deputy head of city project, Le Thanh Liem, said an exception was the infrastructure and sanitation improvement of Tan Hoa-Lo Gom Canal, one of several donor-funded projects to tackle pollution and poverty. The project, which closed in 2007, benefited 22,802 residents living along the canal, who were given loans to repair and upgrade their homes as well as to set up their own business. The improvements included alley upgrades, septic tanks, light and water meter installation in 33 low-income residential areas in District 6 and the districts of Tan Binh, Tan Phu and Binh Tan.
However, another infrastructure upgrade project for the area located next to the polluted Tan Hoa-Lo Gom Canal has been proceeding very slowly because of site clearance obstacles.
It began implementation last year, but so far, just six of 13 districts have received any compensation, and only 722 of 6,578 households have been allocated land.
Under the commitment made to the World Bank, site clearance for project was to be completed by the second quarter of this year, but this has not happened so far.
According to Go Vap District authorities, only 40 out of 500 households have agreed to evacuate.
A representative of Department of Planning and Investment said the slow progress in site clearance had increased the investment capital of some projects.
For instance, the estimated investment capital for widening the Luy Ban Bich Street was about VND760 billion ($40 million), but now it has increased to more than VND1 trillion ($52.6 million). For similar upgrades to Pham Van Chi and Ba Hom streets, the estimated outlay has been pushed up to more than VND100 billion ($5.2 million) from the original VND53 billion ($2.7 million).
Deputy head of the Department of Construction, Nguyen Van Hiep, inconsistencies in the compensation policy was one of the main reasons behind the slow pace site clearance.
District 8 authorities issued a decision on compensation for 255 project-affected households, but 145 lodged an appeal against the decision.
The families complained that in the same ward, households affected by the ? Cay canal project were getting higher compensation than urban upgrading project-affected ones.
"There's a need for clear and consistent compensation policies to speed up ground clearance," Hiep stressed.
Huynh Cong Hung, Deputy Head of the Economic-Budget Board of the city People's Council, asked district administrations to review and ensure the progress of projects in their areas and avoid making additional capital investments.
Pham Van Dong, Head of the People's Council's Economic-Budget Board, said the districts need to provide detailed information about the projects to local residents to ensure their cooperation.
vietnamnews
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