Road expansion near HCMC airport unfinished after 20 years

The Pham Van Bach Street section to be upgraded spans 6 km and borders Tan Son Nhat Airport. It is split into two main branches, connecting from Truong Chinh Street of Tan Binh District to Quang Trung Street of Go Vap District.

When the project was first approved in 2005, the cost was initially slated to be VND273 billion (US$10.9 million). This was later adjusted to the higher figure, mostly due to land clearance compensation, and has reached VND680 billion ($27 million).

However, 78 cases out of over 700 still do not agree with the terms for clearance.

The project has only been completed across one branch on the side of Quang Trung Street. The other branch, Pham Van Bach Street, remains in limbo as dozens of houses have yet to be cleared from the area.

Construction has been stagnant for five years while people often gather to sell goods in certain locations, worsening congestion.

The expansion is being funded by both the state and the people. Families whose homes are partially cleared contribute to the project by getting half of the clearance compensation. As such, some families in the area do not agree to the clearance due to low compensation.

While the amount of compensation was later increased, it is still much lower than market prices, and so several families still do not agree.

“Land prices here have now increased to hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong per square meter, but the amount of compensation is too low, so I cannot relocate,” a shop owner on Pham Van Bach said.

Le Thi Thu Suong, vice chairwoman of the Tan Binh District People’s Committee, said that besides certain families who do not agree with receiving only a half of the supposed compensation, some others used land they were not supposed to use, but still demanded compensation amounts in accordance with residential land prices.

Others want to be paid in accordance with market prices, making the land clearance process challenging.

Tan Binh authorities said they have instructed units to re-check plans for compensation, as well as the land use of families. Next month, authorities will discuss the matter with the Transportation Works Construction Investment Project Management Authority of HCMC, the project’s main investor, to resolve problems.

Tan Binh authorities will also encourage people to hand over their land to hasten progress on the project, as it is vital to prevent congestion and improve aesthetics.

Tan Son Nhat is among the locations with the most complex traffic situations in HCMC, with several overloaded and congested roads. Besides Pham Van Bach, the area also contains several ongoing major projects, such as the Tran Quoc Hoan-Cong Hoa connectivity road.