3 resettlement buildings in Long Bien District proposed for demolition are seriously degraded

Photo: Le Quan

10 years abandoned

After 10 years of completion but no one lives there, Hanoi Construction Joint Stock Company No. 3 (Hanco3) has proposed that Hanoi City allow the demolition of all 3 6-storey resettlement buildings with 150 apartments in the new urban area of ​​Sai Dong (Long Bien District, Hanoi).

According to research ofPV,These 3 buildings were built from 2001 to 2006 to serve the on-site resettlement needs of people after the implementation of the project to clear the land of Sai Dong Street - Sai Dong urban area. However, people did not accept the resettlement agreement here, so the entire fund of these houses has been abandoned since then. The project to expand Sai Dong Street has therefore also been at a standstill, not yet implemented.

Also because of abandonment, the 3 buildings are peeling; the walls are cracked, grass has grown wild in many areas around the house; the door locks and iron bars are rusty, some areas in the campus are used for construction materials, garbage trucks...

Similarly, despite its "dreamy" location adjacent to Dai Co Viet Street, known as the "golden land" area of ​​Bach Khoa Ward (Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi), the resettlement building 4A Ta Quang Buu, although completed in 2015, with 154 spacious apartments, is still abandoned. According to information from the People's Committee of Hai Ba Trung District, the Housing Renovation and Development Joint Stock Company (the investor of the above building) has a project in the area, building 4A was built to solve on-site resettlement, but due to the lack of agreement with the residents, the building has remained uninhabited for many years.

The situation of abandoned resettlement apartments is also quite common in many other places, causing a waste of social resources.

Do not agree to demolish

Talk toPV,Mr. Nguyen Chi Dung, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Construction, said that they have received a proposal to demolish 3 buildings of Hanco3. “We have not agreed to let them demolish the 3 buildings and have instructed them to develop proposed plans to renovate and repair them to continue to create a resettlement housing fund or demolish them to build new houses. But so far, they have not sent the proposed plan back to the Department of Construction, so they have not reported to the leaders of Hanoi City for a decision,” said Mr. Dung.

Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung expressed his disapproval of the demolition of these three resettlement buildings, saying that they could be converted to other uses to maximize efficiency. According to Mr. Hung, the investment project approval process must be studied more carefully, especially the location and purpose of construction to avoid wasting resources.

Mr. Dung also said that Hanoi does not have a surplus of resettlement housing. The situation of many resettlement housing areas being completed but not occupied is because people have not moved in yet. “The work of clearing land for projects is often very complicated, with many complaints, so it takes time to mobilize and explain to people, only then will they agree to move to resettlement housing. In many cases, forced evictions have been required. This has led to the situation of resettlement housing being unoccupied in some places,” Mr. Dung said.

Dr. Pham Sy Liem, Vice President of the Construction Association, said that the reason for the situation of resettlement houses being abandoned without people living in them is because the policy is not linked to reality, such as low construction quality, and services such as transportation, electricity, water, educational facilities, etc. are not synchronized. In addition, there are other reasons such as legal procedures, standards for housing allocation, etc. In particular, the current resettlement areas mainly meet the needs of accommodation, but are not linked to the livelihoods of resettled households.

“The authorities are only concerned with completing the project, handing over the houses, and “getting their own work done” without really taking into account the legitimate needs of the people. To limit the situation of abandoned resettlement houses, it is necessary to limit the construction of this type of house and have a flexible land clearance mechanism with appropriate money so that people can find houses to buy themselves,” said Dr. Liem.