VietNamNet Bridge – Key Ha Noi projects are being held up by lack of funds and skilled staff to manage the relocation of families on resumed land, a conference was told last week.

Workers prepare foundations for Nhat Tan Road, part of the Nhat Tan-Cau Giay Ring Road, one of many projects held up due to slow land clearance process.

Nguyen Duc Hai, deputy chairman of the city's Hoang Mai District's People's Committee, said the district was moving households off 1,126ha of land for 86 projects but it lacked funds and suitable land to relocate them.

And there was no co-ordination between investors and local authorities to resolve problems, he said.

Investors in some projects had called on the district to take the land but they had failed to provide funds to compensate residents who were required to move, he said. In addition, some of the land chosen for relocation in Dong Tau and Den Lu had such poor services, the families were reluctant to move.

Truong Quang Thieu, head of the city's Steering Committee of Land Clearance, said the lack of paralegals who could do the paperwork, tap suitable funds and prepare land and accommodation for relocated families had led to delays.

An example was the O Cho Dua-Hoang Cau Ring Road and Cat Linh-Ha Dong Urban Railway. Only 80m of the 547m O Cho Dua-Hoang Cau Ring Road had been completed in three years.

Nguyen Sy Bao, director of the management board of key projects, said delays in clearing land had stopped the project. Local authorities had failed to define land origins of the households to work out compensation levels because many lacked legal documents.

Construction on the Cat Linh- Ha Dong Urban Railway began in 2011 to be completed next year but only 10 per cent of the project had been done.

Project management board director Tran Van Luc said about a third of the land remained to be cleared of households.

Last year, the City had resumed 1,290ha for 246 projects. More than VND7.6 trillion (US$361.9 million) was spent in compensation for 28,500 households and organisations.

However, some experts blamed "irresponsible" local authorities for failures to clear land. Many just drew up the documents to revoke the land under their authority, but didn't follow them through. In some projects, decisions were made 10 years ago but nothing was done, they said.

In doing so, the city would allocate more officials to clear the land and more funds to make sure the process was completed.

Source: VNS