Construction of the metro line No 1 in HCM City.— Photo bnews.vn

HCM CITY— Dozens of houses in HCM City’s Districts 2 and Bình Thạnh have developed wide cracks on walls and seen their foundations sink allegedly due to the construction of metro line No 1.

Đỗ Thị Mỹ a resident of Phú Mỹ Street in Bình Thạnh District, cannot stop worrying about the safety of her 10-member family, which lives in a 55sq.m house, after deep cracks appeared on the wall last year.

In February last year she petitioned the Ward 22 People’s Committee to examine and make good the damage caused by the construction of the metro line, which passes close by.

Authorities have been promising to pay compensation, but have yet to do so more than a year later.

Mỹ’s is one of dozens of houses affected.

Chu Sơn Bình of the HCM City Management Authority for Urban Railways admitted package 2 – from Ba Son to Suối Tiên -- has affected 35 houses in Bình Thạnh District’s wards 19 and 22 and three in District 2’s Song Hanh Street.

Only 13 households in Ward 22 agreed to have their houses repaired while the rest want cash, he said.

Bình blamed the problem on the weak foundations of houses along Văn Thánh Channel in Bình Thạnh.

Sumitomo-Cienco 6, the package 2 contractor, is working with the project’s insurance and auditing agencies to assess the extent of the damage to pay compensation, Võ Thi Anh, deputy general director of Cienco 6, said.

While waiting for the assessment, the consortium has held talks with affected households to decide whether to pay cash or repair the damages, he said.

The consortium would quickly fix severe damages without any assessment, he said.

But some hope to knock down their old houses to build new ones, and it is impossible for the contractors to meet such requests, he said.

The 19.7km metro line kicked off in 2012 and is scheduled for completion in 2019, with the first trains running by 2020.

To cost US$2.5 billion, it will run 2.6km underground and 17.1km above and will have 14 stations.

It starts at Bến Thành, heads to Sài Gòn Bridge and goes along the Hà Nội Highway to Suối Tiên Cultural Park in District 9. —VNS