HCM CITY — HCM City Party Committee Secretary Nguyễn Thiện Nhân has asked six districts to speed up compensation and site clearance so that land can be handed over to the investor in an ongoing flood-prevention project before the end of June.

Nhân and city leaders yesterday took part in a field survey to ensure the progress of the flood-prevention project.

“This project plays a very important role in preventing flooding in a 570sq.m central area and along the Sài Gòn River, an area with 6.5 million people,” Nhân said.

The Trung Nam Group is the investor in the first phase of the project, worth nearly VNĐ10 trillion (US$430.8 million).

Six tide-control gates at Bến Nghé, Tân Thuận, Phú Xuân, Mương Chuối, Cây Khô and Phú Định, as well as flood control dykes, are being built in districts 1,4,7,8, Bình Chánh and Nhà Bè.

Begun in 2016, the project resumed in February after being suspended in April last year.

Nguyễn Tâm Tiến, CEO of Trung Nam Group, said the project had faced problems in the disbursement of loans and land clearance. “If the city hands over land for the project in June, we pledge to complete the project by the end of this year. It is already 72 per cent complete.”

Representatives of the six districts promised to hand over the land to the investor in June.

Trần Vĩnh Tuyến, vice chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said the districts should collect the land for the investor before June 30. “If not completed, the heads of localities must be responsible to the city’s People’s Committee.”

The city’s People’s Committee would work with the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) to provide loan term extensions for the investor, he added.

The unit to operate and manage the project must have sufficient skills and technical qualifications, he said.

In January next year, the city’s People’s Committee should hire a unit to operate the project after it is completed.

“The project is expected to be operated on a pilot basis by early next year,” Tuyến said.

The city’s Department of Construction has submitted a plan to the People’s Committee to develop 218 anti-flooding projects this year, with total investment of nearly VNĐ8 trillion ($345 million). Of the figure, 77 projects were carried over from last year.

This year, the city is also dredging rivers and canals, and repairing damaged sewer systems. — VNS