At a meeting with related agencies on August 25 on the progress of removing slums along canals, Mr. Tuyen stressed removing dilapidated houses along canals is a city’s big program.
Additionally, HCMC not only relocates all the slum dwellers but also brings new face to urban landscape, improves living environment, traffic infrastructure, reduces flooding to develop the city’s socioeconomic growth.
The Department of Construction said that around 20,000 shanty houses along canals need to be removed. District 8 has around 9,806 slums while Binh Thanh District with 3,400 houses; district 4 with 1,629 houses; district 7 with 1,479; district 6 with 986 houses and some other districts.
From now to 2020, basically the city needs to remove all shanty houses along canals and help dweller to stabilize their lives.
The city is facing financial problem; accordingly, it needs investion of private companies in land compensation for clearance and resettlement. The spending to relocate these houses is estimated to around VND6.6 trillion ($290.3 million) while the city budget has only VND2.1 trillion so it is a big headache for the cash-strapped city.
The Department of Construction and related agencies have expected to carry out the relocating program and the urban planning under three angles. In the first angle, they will spend around VND10 trillion from the city budget to remove 6,697 houses; in the second angle, the city will remove 8,084 slums under the form of public-private partnerships, which costs at VND12 trillion. In the third angle, the city will build condo and urban renovation program.
The deputy chairman asked agencies to liaise with consulting agencies to perform the task well and report to the People’s Committee, especially to strictly follow bidding process because six investors have registered to partake the program.
