HCM CITY – Relocating households living near canals, renovating old apartments and developing transport infrastructure are among major projects the HCM City aims to carry out in 2018, according to the city’s authorities.

HCM City still has more than 20,000 households living on and along canals, mostly in District 8, which must be relocated. However, only half of them can be moved by 2020 due to a shortage of capital.

Trần Trọng Tuấn, director of the Department of Construction, said at a meeting with representatives of the city’s sectors on March 2 that the department is calling for investment in relocating households living along canals.

The department is seeking investors for rebuilding 13 old apartments bloks in districts 1, 3, 10, Tân Bình and Tân Phú.

Tuấn said, “This year, the city plans to destroy 10 old apartments blocks and build seven new ones.”

He added that the department would spend VNĐ80 billion (US$3,500) from the state budget to renovate some old buildings.

According to the department, HCM City has 474 old apartment buildings built before 1975. But only 16 old apartment buildings were renovated or rebuilt in the past decade.

The city asked the department to build or rebuild 200 apartment buildings by 2020.

For transport infrastructure, Bùi Xuân Cường, director of transport department, said, “The department plans to carry out 26 new projects and complete 14 projects on road and waterway development to ease traffic congestion.”

He said the department would focus on increasing bus services to attract more bus users.

The department targets to have 635 million passengers traveling by bus in 2018.

It has also proposed that the city’s People’s Committee soon issue policies on the management of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, so that the department can call for investment on major projects to reduce traffic congestion and flooding.

Trần Vĩnh Tuyến, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, urged the construction department to seek investors for projects to relocate households in and along canals, and renovations.

He also asked the department to check all current projects on renovating old apartments and recall the projects which could not be carried out.

Tuyến asked the transport department to focus on developing waterway traffic and public transport, boosting metro projects, and building a railway system around harbours to provide good transit. — VNS