Unfinished BT project lasts for nearly a decade
The BT route surrounding the Chu Van An memorial site (now Pham Tu street) has been open to traffic since 2020. However, the overpass from Pham Tu Street to Phuc La Street, intersecting with Road 70, is still unfinished and has been stalled for many years, seriously affecting the lives of hundreds of households here.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (Thanh Tri district, Hanoi) - said that nearly ten years have passed, and the infrastructure has not been built yet.
"Lying in a suspended planning area means that people are not licensed to repair and renovate their houses. "Many generations of families have had to live in crowded spaces and lack of amenities for many years," said Ms. Hoa.
Ms. Bui Thi Loan (Thanh Tri district, Hanoi) - said that people are living stably but are suddenly caught up in a planning project. The infrastructure system has not been deployed synchronously, causing people's lives to suffer, not knowing where the future will go.
It is known that at the beginning of 2014, Bitexco Group was appointed as an investor of the route surrounding the celebrity memorial area of Chu Van An in the form of BT (construction - transfer), including the route (including route 1, route No. 5) and intersection of route 1 and 70 road. In return, Bitexco was delivered by Hanoi People's Committee to the south of Ring Road 3 wide of 90ha (of which 20.8ha is the residual land) Manor Central Park.
Talking to labor, Bitexco Group said that the investor has completed the construction of routes 1 and route No. 5 on schedule, specifically accepted and handed over to the Department of Transport (now the Department of Construction of Hanoi City) put into use, contributing to significant traffic congestion for the region. The intersection of Pham Tu - DT70 is a component item of the project. However, because the site clearance is facing many difficulties and obstacles, investors are still waiting to hand over clean ground to be able to implement construction.
In order to promptly remove difficulties, accelerate the progress of important investment projects, on January 21, 2025, Hanoi People's Committee issued Document No. 588/TB-VP announcing the conclusion of the Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Sy Thanh instructing the investment project to build roads surrounding the celebrity memorial area Chu Van An, Thanh Tri District. Accordingly, "Request People's Committees of districts: Ha Dong and Thanh Tri to focus and urgently accelerate the site clearance progress, focusing on directing and resolving problems in the site clearance area with Phan Trong Tue Street (Road 70) at the latest completed in June June".
Regarding the overpass project at the intersection of Road 70 that cannot be implemented, the People's Committee of Thanh Tri district said that the total area of recovered land is 50,910.1m2. Of which, Thanh Tri district has approved 79 agricultural land plans for households and individuals with an area of 27,239.5m2. Currently, there are 114 individual households whose residential land has been reclaimed and 5 organizations corresponding to an area of 23,670.6m2 that have not yet been cleared.
In the coming time, Thanh Tri District People's Committee continues to direct the Land Fund Development Center of Thanh Tri District and Tan Trieu Commune People's Committee to complete the dossier, coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and Environment to appraise the lake village and identify the land use owner for 119 cases that have not been cleared. This will be the basis for adjusting the notice of land acquisition issued since 2017 ".
Current status of The Manor Central Park project
Currently, the land adjacent to Bitexco has been quickly commercialized with more than 1,000 townhouses in phases 1 and 2.
Recently, the Hanoi People's Committee has announced the conclusion of the City People's Committee about Bitexco JSC proposed to continue implementing the investment project to build Nam Vanh Dai 3 urban area (trade name The Manor Central Park) The rest in Hoang Mai and Thanh Tri district (Hanoi). Accordingly, the Hanoi People's Committee approved Bitexco to continue implementing The Manor Central Park project of the remaining land (about 6.6 hectares) under the BT contract of the road project surrounding the celebrity memorial area Chu Van An in Hanoi signed.
The land allocation to Bitexco under the BT contract will be carried out in 2 phases, phase 1 will be 14.2ha, phase 2 will be 6.6ha. This land fund is planned to be sold by Bitexco to build low-rise houses and commercial apartments. However, Hanoi has not yet handed over 6.6 hectares of counterpart land in phase 2 to Bitexco, because it believes that the 14.2 hectares of land allocated to investors to build low-rise houses for sale has exceeded the value of the BT project, about more than VND 1,550 billion.
Although the BT type was terminated in 2021 due to many shortcomings, according to the new regulations, from July 1, 2025, BT projects will be restarted.
Architect Tran Huy Anh - Standing Member of the Hanoi Architects Association - commented that the above BT project situation as well as many projects to exchange land for Hanoi's infrastructure. The reason is weak management of public land resources, leading to profiteering organizations and individuals, causing waste of money and land. Therefore, in 2018, the Ministry of Finance issued a document requesting Hanoi to stop paying in land for projects and by May 2020, the city announced the revocation of 82 projects.
For example, 4 projects to exchange Vinh Tuy and Tran Hung Dao bridges, stereoscopic intersections of the bridge and belt 3 have a total estimate of 15,601 billion VND, expected to be paid by 1,855 ha of land - an average price of 0.84 million VND/m2 of land. While actual transactions up to 50 - 120 million/m2. Just take the average land price of 50 million VND/m2 and only need to exploit 1,000/1,855ha of land to transfer the rights by the market, the city will earn 50 trillion VND, equal to the total investment of 4 new bridges across the Red River plus a total investment of Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway.
In which many public land projects are valued at only 2 - 3% of the actual transaction price, the projects increase their investment capital by 2-3 times. For example, the Cau Chui intersection project reported that the project had an investment of VND 2,379.7 billion, but after inspection, the State Audit confirmed that it was only VND 1,300.4 billion, a difference of VND 1,079.3 billion.
"The risk of low land prices and expensive infrastructure purchases still exists. Hanoi is planning to sell nearly 90,000 hectares of land on both sides of Ring Road 4 for 1.6 million VND/m2, only 1/50 - 1/100 of the market price. As for these proposals, there are many unfinished projects like Bitexco", commentator Tran Huy Anh shared.
Mr. Nguyen The Diep - Vice President of Hanoi Real Estate Club said that over the years, the public-private partnership (PPP) model, especially the BT (build - transfer) form, has brought about clear results in infrastructure development.
However, there are still shortcomings in the implementation process, especially site clearance - a key step but often delayed. In addition, some businesses often tend to focus only on completing the adjacent land quickly - which is profitable, while slow to deploy the infrastructure that must be handed over to the State. This creates a clear imbalance between economic benefits and social responsibility in BT projects.
He also said that the Government and Hanoi City need to comprehensively re-evaluate the BT model, especially after this form is allowed to be re-implemented from July 1, 2025.
BT is a very good model for mobilizing resources for infrastructure development, but there must be a transparent and clear control mechanism, especially site clearance, progress monitoring and handling responsibilities if there are violations, said Mr. Diep.
From the lessons of many projects behind schedule, Mr. Diep proposed to strengthen supervision and strictly implement commitments between the government and businesses, to avoid the situation where businesses "reap quick benefits" from adjacent land but are slow to deploy public infrastructure.
