Inside the 'waiting to collapse' apartment complex in the middle of the capital

TPO - With the naked eye, one can see that the steel reinforcement of two stairs in the dormitory area managed by the University of Commerce (Cau Giay District, Hanoi) is so rusty that it could collapse.

Located in lane 29 Duong Khue, next to the campus of the University of Commerce, the E1 dormitory building of the University of Commerce has long been reported to be seriously degraded.

Talking to Tien Phong, some residents said that the house was built in the 60s of the last century, and was arranged for officials of the University of Commerce to borrow to live in when they had difficulty with housing.

The stairs in the building show many signs of dangerous deterioration.

Many people living in the building said that with the naked eye, they could see that the steel reinforcements of the two stairs in the building and the walls were heavily rusted. Even with just a slight impact, this iron part would automatically fall off.

"Because the stairs are getting weaker, we don't dare to walk fast or hard or carry heavy things when going up and down. There are days when we walk, mortar and rusty iron even fall on our heads," said a tenant in the building.

Due to the degraded and potentially dangerous structure, part of the stairs leading to the rooftop in the building has been temporarily blocked with wood by residents.

Currently, there is only one way to the rooftop of the building. On the rooftop, residents take advantage of the flat area to grow vegetables.

The first floor of the building is used as a sales kiosk while the second floor is where many tenants live.

The space inside the house is always in a state of lack of light.

Many areas in the building pose a high risk of fire and explosion. Residents living here said that over time, cracks in the building have appeared more and more.

Speaking with Tien Phong, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Vice Chairman of Mai Dich Ward People's Committee, said that the E1 apartment building was built a long time ago, is still under the management of the University of Commerce and has not been handed over to the district and ward for management.

Meanwhile, sharing with Tien Phong, a representative of the University of Commerce said that the nature of the E1 dormitory was originally the school's cafeteria. After that, the school lent it to staff and teachers to use as temporary housing. Therefore, the rooms were converted into apartments. Up to now, only a few people who were lent accommodation by the University of Commerce still live in the dormitory, the rest mainly rent out apartments. Also according to the representative of the University of Commerce, the school currently has no plans to renovate the dormitory due to some subjective and objective difficulties. At the same time, after many decades, "reclaiming" the dormitory for renovation faces many challenges...

According to the Ministry of Construction, in Hanoi, in 2020, the whole city had 1,579 old apartment buildings, most of which were built between 1960 and 1992. However, in the past 20 years, only about 1.14% of the total of more than 1,500 old apartment buildings and old collective housing areas that need to be repaired, renovated, and renewed have been renovated.

Over time, due to lack of regular maintenance, the urban infrastructure system has been damaged, causing many old apartment buildings to continue to seriously deteriorate, some of which are severely damaged, endangering the technical safety of the building structure. According to statistics, a total of 401 old apartment buildings have been inspected, of which 80 are dangerous at level D (the most dangerous level), but the city has only implemented 32 old apartment building renovation projects, of which 18 projects have been completed; of which, 2 projects have been put into use, 14 projects are under implementation.

Lap Dong

Source: https://tienphong.vn/ben-trong-khu-tap-the-cho-sap-giua-thu-do-post1628946.tpo