VNEconomyNews.com - HCM City's Budget Department has called on the Department of Transport and other related agencies to resolve the pressing issues of tardiness and poor quality of major infrastructure works in the city.
Around 173 infrastructure works, including nine major ones, are under way. But many of them have been proceeding at a very slow pace, missing deadlines, the Department of Transport has said.
The nine major works have all been in progress for up to 10 years and are behind schedule, according to the Department.
It blamed slow land acquisition and site clearance, lack of funds, and contractors' and developers' incapability for the delay.
The lack of co-ordination among various agencies involved in the works is also a problem, it added.
Truong Trong Nghia of the city People's Council, the legislature, slammed the quality of roadwork, saying contractors left large, deadly potholes on several streets after completing work, posing a threat to users.
He said 25 per cent of them were caused by their carelessness and irresponsibility.
However, the Budget Department refuted several of the Department's claims. Denying funds had been a problem, it said. For instance, VND23 trillion (U$$1.15 billion) had been provided this year for the major works instead of the originally agreed VND14 trillion.
The tardiness in acquiring sites for the works had been due to land owners' unhappiness with the land compensation and resettlement policies, it added. The Department of Finance said the Department of Transport was unable to undertake several works at the same time because of most contractors' limited capability.
