HCM City is renovating old apartment buildings and removing makeshift houses on or along canals as part of its urban renovation and development plan for the 2016-2020 period.

Slums on Kenh Te Canal in HCM City’s District 7. 

The secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, and leaders of HCM City Construction Department met on November 8 to discuss a report on the plan.

Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, said quality verification for 474 old apartment buildings built before 1975 had been completed.

The People’s Committee has asked the Construction Department and district authorities to build or rebuild 200 apartment buildings by 2020. Only 16 old apartment buildings were renovated or rebuilt in the 

past decade, according to Khoa.

HCM City still has more than 20,000 households living on and along canals. These households, most of which are in District 8, must be relocated by 2020, Khoa said.

The director of the city’s Construction Department, Tran Trong Tuan, said in 2017 the department was focusing on reducing administrative procedures for construction licensing through a pilot one-stop license-granting plan.

The number of necessary steps for granting a construction license has been reduced from 122 days to 42 days, he said.

At the meeting, Nhan asked the department to speed up the relocation of the 20,000 households living on or along the city’s canals, and the renovation and upgrading of the old apartment buildings.

He told the department to call for investment in the programmes to relocate households living along canals, and enhance inspections at the grassroots level to prevent illegal construction activities.

He asked the department to take the initiative in administrative reform and reduce inconveniences facing residents and the business sector.

“The Construction Department’s one-stop construction licensing will help reduce time and remove bottlenecks encountered by businesses,” Nhan said. —VNS