HCM CITY – The HCM City People’s Committee has submitted to the municipal People’s Council a list of 880 projects that require around 7,000ha of land to be acquired.

The proposals came from the city’s 24 districts, and include 293 projects which began last year requiring nearly 1,360ha and 198 new projects with 1,932ha.

Under the 2013 Land Law, acquisition of land for public projects must be approved by local people’s councils, according to a People’s Committee official.

These may be State offices, parks, squares, monuments and memorial steles, public works at local levels, local infrastructure facilities, new urban areas, residential areas in new rural zones, industrial complexes, or agricultural, seafood, aqua and forestry production and processing zones.

Most projects requiring land now are major ones like road and canal repair and upgrade works, clearing slums along canals and construction of schools and hospitals.

Addressing a municipal People’s Council meeting early this month, a representative of the HCM City’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said land compensation for most of these projects has been paid slowly, resulting in tardy progress.

Disagreement over prices is the main reason for the tardiness, he said.

The delays have meant the lands are acquired in bits and pieces, which has hindered work on infrastructure, he said.

Meanwhile, a number of investors have complained that tortuous investment procedures, including pre-feasibility studies and environmental impact assessment studies, result in cost overruns and missed opportunities.

Delayed projects

Project delays, many of them for decades, have been a big problem plaguing the city.

According to figures from the People’s Committee, construction has yet to start at 405 of 1,200 current projects.

Hoàng Minh Trí, deputy head of the HCM City’s Institute for Development, said investors’ lack of capacity is the main cause for the delays.

Development of the Hoàng Hải Residential Area in Hóc Môn District, for instance, has been delayed by the investor’s low financial and management capability.

The director of the city’s Department of Construction, Trần Trọng Tuấn, said to resolve these problems delayed projects were often taken away from the investors.

To protect the interests of secondary investors, authorities would not cancel the projects but instead look for others to replace the original investors, he said.

A mechanism would be set up to punish investors who fail to keep their commitments, and families affected by these projects would be encouraged to sue them, he said.

In early December, nearly 700 families in Section E of Tân Thuận  Urban Area filed a suit against the Tân Thuận Industrial Promotion Co. Ltd., the supposed developer of the South Sài Gòn Urban Area, which has been delayed since 1992.

The Bình Chánh District People’s Committee has instructed the People’s Committee of An Phú Tây Commune to support these families. — VNS