According to a report from the HCM City People’s Committee, HCM City set a goal to put many key transport infrastructure projects into operation in the 2016-2020 period, including Pham Van Dong Road, the road to Phu Huu Seaport and an overpass at Go May area, aiming to ease the city’s severe traffic congestion. However, the site clearance for most of these projects is proceeding extraordinarily slowly.
The traffic congestion in HCM City
Nguyen Tan Tuyen, deputy head of the municipal People’s Council’s Urban Management Board, said compensation policies have hindered site clearance work. The public have complained about the low compensation, he specified, noting that this was among the reasons why many projects which were started 20 years ago has not yet been finished.
According to Luong Minh Phuc, head of the city's Urban Civil Works Construction Investment Management Authority, his agency is managing 75 projects, but up to 75% were struggling with site clearance problems.
Meanwhile, director of the HCM City Department of Transport, said capital shortages also affected HCM City’s transport projects which mostly use the state budget.
Le Thi Huynh Mai, Director of the HCM City Department of Investment and Planning, said that roughly VND61.3 trillion (USD2.67 billion) from the state budget would help ease traffic jams and accidents between 2016 and 2020, meeting just 35.7% of the total demand.
During the phase, only a VND16.96 trillion capital had been mobilised from public-private partnerships for HCM City’s transport projects, satisfying a mere 13% of the demand.
Deputy Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Vo Van Hoan said that the city has considered shortening site compensation procedures to speed up the site clearance.