HCM CITY – HCM City authorities said they have cancelled the licences of hundreds of suspended public projects that have affected the lives of the public, but many people said a number of projects remain “suspended” and continue to affect their living conditions.

Lê Minh Liên, who lives near the Gò Dưa intersection being built at the junction of National Highway No 1 A and Provincial Road No 43 in Thủ Đức District, said: “At night, I usually have disturbed sleep because of the traffic noise and fear of accidents.

The first stage of the intersection, including roads and a bridge, was completed in February 2012, but the lands required for the second stage of the project have not been acquired yet.

Liên’s is one of 174 families currently living in the area where the second stage will be built.

The owner of the house at 57 Gò Dưa Road abandoned it a year ago, saying it was too close to the roundabout that his family constantly had to inhale smoke and dust and suffer from the traffic noise.

He has asked authorities for compensation so that he could move out for good and settle elsewhere, but his efforts have been in vain, the Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper reported.

A spokesman for the Thủ Đức District People’s Committee was quoted as saying that the site clearance would not be done by 2017.

City authorities have not announced plans to buy the houses affected by the second phase due to a shortage of funds for the project, he said.

Development of the Southern Urban Area covering over 2,000ha in Bình Chánh District has been delayed for several years.

The Government announced plans to acquire land for the project in 1994, but most households affected by the project have yet to receive compensation.

Meanwhile, things have been in limbo there for the past 22 years, with house construction or enlargement and purchase and sale prohibited.

Nguyễn Văn Bá, a resident of Hamlet 1A in Bình Chánh’s Bình Hưng Commune, said he wanted to build a small room for one of his kids, but the construction was stopped by the district authorities.

Most residents in sections B, C, D, E of the Southern Urban Area face a similar situation.

A deputy chairman of the commune People’s Committee (who asked not to be named) said: “Residents’ petitions are legitimate. The Southern Urban Area Project has been delayed for a very long time. Relevant authorities must inform affected residents about when construction of the project will start and when land compensation will be paid.”

He said these issues do not fall within the purview of the commune people’s committee.

Similarly, a spokesman for the Củ Chi People’s Committee said the district would petition the Government to cancel plans to build a medical school on nearly 106ha in Phước Hiệp Commune. The city Department of Health’s project was approved in 2005, followed by a decision to acquire land for it in 2007.

But so far none of the 250 households affected by the project have received compensation for their lands.

As a result, fields have been left uncultivated for the past decade, canals are dry, and the losses suffered by locals have been immense.

According to figures from the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment, since 2012 the city administration has cancelled 571 suspended projects involving 5,905ha.

It has also reduced the scale of nine other projects by a total of 137ha. - VNS