Faced with this fact, many years ago, Hanoi city planned to repair, renovate and rebuild old apartment buildings, but the number is still very modest.
Out of a total of nearly 1600 old apartment buildings in Hanoi, there are about 40 old collective houses and apartments at dangerous and extremely dangerous levels such as Thanh Cong and Ngoc Khanh Collective Areas, Ba Dinh District; Tan Mai Collective Area, Hoang Mai District… These are the houses that have been warned of being unsafe, at risk of collapse at any time, and urgently need to be repaired.
Renovating old apartment building still has many dilemmas
For example, Tan Mai collective area (Hoang Mai district), after 30 years of use, in 2010, building A7 appeared subsidence, severe degradation, local authorities, functional sectors of the city had to reinforce the steel frame from the 1st floor to the 5th floor to prevent the risk of collapse. According to the households, repairing and chống cột are just temporary solutions, people living in the building are very worried about safety.
“We are very uneasy living here, the safety of the building is alarming, especially when the storm and rainy season comes, the building has hundreds of people living here” – a resident in collective A7 shared.
In order to ensure safety for the people as well as to embellish the urban area, since 1999, Hanoi city has started to renovate, repair and rebuild old apartments, but after more than 20 years, the number of old apartments renovated is very small. Up to now, Hanoi city has only completed renovating and rebuilding 19 old collective houses and apartment buildings.
Currently, some projects are continuing to be renovated and rebuilt such as: Nguyen Cong Tru collective area; Collective area X1, No. 26 Lieu Giai; Railway Transport Service Collective Area (Hoang Mai District); Apartment building No. 148 – 150 Son Tay Street (Ba Dinh District)…
The renovation and rebuilding of old apartment buildings in Hanoi is slow due to difficulties in mechanisms and lack of consensus among a part of the people. Among them, the most difficult thing is to balance the interests of the three parties: the state, the enterprise and the people. Businesses are not interested because the benefits of renovating old apartments are not attractive. Meanwhile, the requirement is not to increase population density, adjust planning, and increase construction height.
Mr. Ho Van Son, a resident of Vinh Ho Collective Area, Dong Da District, suggested: “We have had a plan to renovate old apartments for a long time. So, the problem is why can’t we do it? In my opinion, this is a compromise between the people, the investor and the government must act as the referee”.
In order to speed up the progress of renovating and rebuilding old apartment buildings, the Hanoi City People’s Committee conducted a general inspection, screening, survey, and inspection of old apartments; making detailed plans, general plans of old apartments; plans to renovate and rebuild old apartments. The plan is divided into 4 phases, of which the first phase selects 10 old apartment buildings for the period 2021-2025 such as Kim Lien, Trung Tu, Khuong Thuong, Thanh Xuan Bac… and 4 areas with dangerous houses level D are Giang Vo, Thanh Cong, Ngoc Khanh, Ministry of Justice.
The Hanoi City People’s Committee assigned the Department of Construction to preside over studying and advising the city on the provisions on coefficient K as a basis for localities and investors to proactively negotiate and agree with the people.
Mr. Mac Dinh Minh, Deputy Director of Hanoi Construction Department said: “In the past time, the two contents related to building coefficient K, as well as the criteria for selecting investors, the Hanoi Construction Department has provided specific instructions. In the future, the Steering Committee will authorize the People’s Committees of districts with old apartment buildings to build specific coefficients”.
At the 2nd session, the 16th Hanoi City People’s Council passed a Resolution on the Project on renovation and rebuilding old apartment buildings in the area. The city of Hanoi allocates a budget of about 500 billion VND to inspect and review the current status of old apartments, especially for old apartments that are dangerous, at risk of collapse, and severely damaged apartments.
Recently, at the inspection of the situation of implementing the Project of renovation and rebuilding old apartment buildings in the area, the Secretary of the Hanoi City Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung requested related units to create a breakthrough in planning; planning associated with solving difficulties and obstacles, ensuring harmony of interests between people, investors, and the state… so that by 2025, Hanoi will start renovating and rebuilding 1 to 2 old apartment complexes.
