The rains in early October 2023 made the appearance of La Xuan Oai and Lo Lu streets (Thu Duc City) even more dirty and bumpy with numerous "potholes" and "elephant holes" hidden under murky puddles.
Bridges and roads "waiting" for clearance
Although there is a plan to expand the road to meet the travel needs of the people, the project is at a standstill because the compensation work is still at a standstill. Specifically, the project to upgrade and expand La Xuan Oai Street from the intersection of Lo Lu Street to Nguyen Duy Trinh Street (belonging to Truong Thanh and Long Truong Wards) was allocated 190 billion VND in compensation capital, while the section from D2 of the high-tech park to Le Van Viet with 282 billion VND in compensation capital (belonging to Tang Nhon Phu A and Tang Nhon Phu B Wards) has not yet disbursed any money. The problem with this project is related to the allocation of resettlement housing and land funds and the approval of land price adjustment coefficients for calculating compensation.
Lo Lu Road (Thu Duc City) is seriously degraded but the locality has not yet disbursed compensation funds to upgrade and expand the road.
On La Xuan Oai Street, there is also the Tang Long Bridge project that started construction at the end of 2017 and was expected to be completed in 2019, but more than 30% of the work has been "frozen" due to land issues. For the past 4 years, people have been waiting for the project to restart, but the locality has not yet set a date for handing over the land. While waiting for the project, the only option for people is a temporary iron bridge.
Also in Thu Duc City, Lo Lu Street, about 2.5 km long, connecting La Xuan Oai Street to Nguyen Xien Street, is in the same situation of muddy flooding when it rains, and dusty when it's sunny. Although only 6-10 m wide, this is the main road, having to "carry" a large number of cars and trucks passing through every day. On Lo Lu Street, there are 2 bridges: Lap Bridge and Chum Chup Bridge, which are only about 3-4 m wide, cars at both ends of the bridge must give way to one car before it can take its turn. The project to expand Lo Lu Street was assigned a compensation capital of 105 billion VND (section through Truong Thanh Ward), but by mid-September 2023, no VND had been disbursed even though the land price adjustment coefficient had been approved from 2022.
La Xuan Oai Street, Lo Lu Street and Tang Long Bridge are 3 of 32 compensation projects in Thu Duc City in 2023 with a total capital of VND 9,395 billion. By mid-September 2023, Thu Duc had only disbursed VND 2,726 billion in compensation capital, equivalent to 29%. Thu Duc is also the locality with the highest number of projects disbursing 0 VND in Ho Chi Minh City with 26 projects (valued at VND 2,386 billion), 5 other projects are behind schedule and only one project is on schedule (Ong Bon Bridge with a capital of VND 7.7 billion).
Project capital increase
According to the assessment of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, Thu Duc City has a large number of projects and a large amount of capital, including many unfinished and prolonged projects. To achieve high disbursement progress, this locality needs to focus on completing unfinished projects and two large capital projects: Ring Road 3 (VND 6,539 billion) and My Thuy intersection (VND 1,044 billion). The Department of Natural Resources and Environment forecasts that by the end of the year, Thu Duc will not reach the disbursement rate of 95%.
Strong direction, inadequate change
Since the beginning of the year, agencies from the City Party Committee, People's Council to the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City have resolutely directed the disbursement of public investment capital, considering it a driving force to prevent the decline and restore the economy. In particular, the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee established 13 working groups to supervise and urge 38 key projects, while the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council supervised the topic of public investment. Every 1-2 months, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued documents directing, reminding, and urging, but the changes on the construction site and the disbursement rate at the treasury were not commensurate.
Not only Thu Duc City, the list of localities forecasted to not reach the disbursement rate of 95% of compensation capital in 2023 also includes Cu Chi District, Hoc Mon District, District 12, District 5. In 2023, District 5 only has 3 compensation projects including: construction of Tuong Lai specialized school, district medical center and construction of Hang Bang canal with a total capital allocated of more than 587 billion VND but has not yet disbursed any VND.
In particular, the construction of Hang Bang canal is a key project of Ho Chi Minh City, passing through two districts (District 5 and District 6), the starting point is Van Tuong street, the end point connects to Lo Gom canal.
In District 6, the project is over 1.4 km long, divided into 3 phases, of which the section from Binh Tien Street to Lo Gom Canal has been completed, both sides have become shady parks, with a playground for children added. Phase 2 is 500 m long, affecting 344 households, implemented since 2018 but has only been completed on Bai Say Street, Phan Van Khoe Street has 88 cases that have not been handed over because they believe the compensation price is lower than the market price.
This project was approved for the 2016-2020 period, but due to slow progress, it had to be extended to the 2021-2025 period. At the mid-2022 session, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council passed a resolution to increase the total investment and extend the implementation period of 16 slow-moving projects, of which the Hang Bang Canal project increased from VND188 billion to VND779 billion. Similarly, the Tang Long Bridge project also increased its total investment from VND238 billion to VND688 billion, largely due to increased compensation costs.
Slow approval of land price adjustment coefficient
In 2023, Ho Chi Minh City will have 271 compensation projects with capital of nearly VND 27,000 billion (accounting for 39% of total public investment capital), including 116 projects carried over from 2022 and 155 new projects this year. As of September 13, Ho Chi Minh City has disbursed VND 11,625 billion, equivalent to more than 43%. Of the 155 projects allocated compensation capital in 2023, 24 projects are behind schedule and 101 projects have not yet disbursed, concentrated in Thu Duc City, Cu Chi District, Binh Chanh District, Hoc Mon District, District 8 and District 12.
Among the reasons leading to the slow disbursement of compensation capital, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment pays special attention to the work of submitting, appraising, and approving the land price adjustment coefficient for calculating compensation. According to Decision 05/2022 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, from the time of land recovery notice to the time the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approves the land price adjustment coefficient is about 240 days (8 months). In the action program to promote disbursement of public investment capital in 2023, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai requested localities to carefully prepare compensation unit prices so that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee can approve all projects before July 30. In the remaining time, localities will focus on paying compensation and persuading people.
Although bottlenecks were anticipated and given strong direction from the beginning of the year, the changes in reality were not commensurate. By September 2023, out of 155 projects allocated compensation capital in 2023, 65 projects still had not been approved for land price adjustment coefficients. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment forecast that these projects could not be disbursed or would disburse very little this year.
The Head of the Compensation and Site Clearance Board of a suburban district in Ho Chi Minh City said that in order to carry out compensation, the project must ensure three conditions: comply with the planning, be approved by competent authorities, and have the land use plan approved. According to regulations, the annual land use plan must be approved before December 31 of the previous year, but in Ho Chi Minh City, many localities have to wait until the second or third quarter to get approval. For example, in 2023, it will not be until August 31 that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approves the land use plan of District 8, Tan Binh District, and Tan Phu District...
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