Ensuring people's rights in key projects

Ho Chi Minh City is seeking opinions from residents and Front officials on major transportation projects that are expected to be implemented in the near future. Many opinions suggest that it is necessary to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of people affected in the project area, especially the issue of compensation for cases of land revocation.

National Highway 13 is expected to be upgraded and expanded in 2026, which will help reduce traffic congestion that has persisted for many years. Photo: Q.Dinh.

Facilitate citizen supervision

According to the Pre-Feasibility Study Report of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, there are 5 major upgraded and newly built traffic projects expected to be implemented under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, including: National Highway 13, from Binh Trieu Bridge to the border of Binh Duong province; National Highway 1, from Kinh Duong Vuong to the border of Long An province; National Highway 22, from An Suong intersection to Ring Road 3; North-South axis, from Nguyen Van Linh Street to Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway and construction of Binh Tien Bridge and Road, from Pham Van Chi Street to Nguyen Van Linh Street.

At the conference to provide comments on the above projects, recently organized by the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, delegates contributed many practical ideas. In particular, Lawyer Truong Thi Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Advisory Council for Democracy and Law (Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City) hoped that the City People's Council should issue a list of social criticism projects so that the City People's Committee can publicly and transparently disclose all information about the projects to facilitate people to exercise their right to supervision in accordance with the law.

Ms. Hoa suggested that for projects with site clearance and costs accounting for more than 50% of the total investment of the project and the financial plan does not ensure the ability to recover capital, the People's Council should consider and decide to increase the proportion of state capital participating in the form of public-private partnership (PPP). In addition, the projects also need to have an impact assessment section that meets the requirements of planning, architecture, culture, socio-economic efficiency, national defense and security and environmental protection.

Mr. Phan Van Phung - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of District 8 said that in the district, there is the Binh Tien Bridge and Road Project passing through Ward 6 and Ward 14, this is a project that is considered very important for the district as well as the Southwest area of ​​Saigon. The government and people of District 8 are looking forward to the project being implemented soon.

According to Mr. Phung, to facilitate the dissemination and mobilization of people affected by the project to agree to hand over the site, the investor must ensure that people are informed of the construction progress, start and end times, as well as changes in the plan. At the same time, meetings must be held regularly to listen to people's opinions and answer questions.

Ms. Dinh Thi My Nhi - Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Trung My Tay Ward, District 12, suggested that the city should pay attention to the ability to integrate and upgrade current and future infrastructure to meet the project's requirements, avoiding lack of synchronization and waste. In addition, there must be a reasonable traffic plan when implementing the project, avoiding congestion, traffic jams... affecting the general traffic of the entire route and the area.

“The city should have a strict monitoring mechanism from authorities at all levels for the project implementation process, avoiding risks of corruption, waste or non-transparent work as well as ensuring project progress and implementation time,” said Ms. Nhi.

The options must be realistic.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau - Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association assessed that the current Pre-Feasibility Study Report of the Project to expand and upgrade National Highway 1, from Kinh Duong Vuong to the border of Long An province, has not clearly stated the application of new land prices, approaching the market price to compensate people. This will seriously affect the rights and interests of the people; potentially causing disputes that prolong the project implementation time, wasting time, money, effort, and affecting the reputation of the state.

“It is necessary to develop and implement plans that are suitable to reality. This will help to comply with the schedule of necessary work when constructing projects, and at the same time limit the situation of multiple amendments and supplements that prolong the implementation time and lack of investment capital like similar projects that have been implemented before,” Mr. Hau emphasized.

Regarding the toll collection method, Mr. Hau said that BOT projects often receive backlash from the people, and that the turn-based collection method can easily cause disagreements and anger among the people, especially in cases where their destinations are located within a short radius of the toll station and are still charged the same as vehicles traveling the entire route. Mr. Hau believes that with current technology, it is completely possible to organize toll collection by stages, with people paying as much as they travel.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Minh Tho - former Head of the Resettlement Compensation Department, Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, commented that the compensation level in the National Highway 13 Resettlement Project is very large but the plan has not been specifically shown. Mr. Tho raised the issue: it is necessary to clarify which regulations and methods are applied on resettlement, is the number correct? Does the implementation process increase the price? How to handle it then? For the resettlement part, it is necessary to divide it into independent projects, this is a fundamental solution to speed up and shorten the implementation time. In addition, there should be a unified and clear criteria. "Re-evaluate, discuss with the locality, must ensure the people's lives are equal to or better than the old place" - Mr. Tho expressed his opinion.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tri - a resident of Hiep Binh Phuoc ward, Thu Duc city said that in Hiep Binh Phuoc ward, it is expected that there will be over 800 households to be cleared, of which over 200 households will be subject to complete clearance to implement the National Highway 13 expansion project. Therefore, he suggested that the Ho Chi Minh City government should have a resettlement policy and create jobs to help people stabilize their lives soon.

The project to expand National Highway 13 under the BOT form, when completed and put into use with toll collection, Mr. Tri hopes that the city should have a policy to support reducing or exempting road and bridge fees for people living along the clearance route.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/dam-bao-quyen-loi-cho-nguoi-dan-tai-cac-du-an-trong-diem-10297988.html