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Many years ago, the local authorities planned a project on relocating houses along canals to make room for East-West Boulevard.
Some officials said that with the limited budget, it would be better to clear only 5,000 houses in districts 1 and 5, while the remaining houses will be relocated later when the city could arrange a budget for it.
However, the then-PM Vo Van Kiet decided that all the houses on the two sides of canals must be cleared at the same time. And now HCMC has the green canal Tau Hu – Ben Nghe.
Relating the story, Lich said the ‘living within one’s means’ principle can be true for individual consumers, but not in investment and development.
“If we only develop infrastructure items with the money we have in our pocket, we will never be able to do big business,” he said.
Sharing the same view with Lich, an analyst said that local authorities need to have a long term vision when planning the city’s development before they estimate the capital needed to implement the plans.
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If programmers had considered the possibility of connecting Metro No 1 route with other provinces such as Dong Nai and Binh Duong right from the beginning, the financial resources would have been calculated more accurately, while the call for capital would have been implemented in another way. |
He cited the Metro No 1 project as an example. The project estimates have soared to $2.2 billion, much higher than initially estimated.
If programmers had considered the possibility of connecting Metro No 1 route with other provinces such as Dong Nai and Binh Duong right from the beginning, the financial resources would have been calculated more accurately, while the call for capital would have been implemented in another way.
The lack of long-term vision caused many problems, which can be seen in the city’s waste treatment systems.
The project on collecting domestic waste water along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe canal has been completed. However, the waste water still needs to be pumped into the Sai Gon River because of the lack of a treatment plant.
Meanwhile, the waste water treatment plant in Tham Luong – Ben Cat area has been built, but it has no waste water to treat. The problem lies in the lack of a pipeline which collects waste water from households.
In these cases, the systems built with huge money cannot operate properly because of the lack of support items. Meanwhile, the lack of support items are blamed on the lack of capital.
Hundreds of large-scale construction works will be implemented in HCMC in the time to come, including 5-6 more metro routes, the Belt Road No 2 and No 3 and the HCMC-Can Tho Highway.
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