HCMC puts $64 mln opera house on hold

According to a report on the city's public investments for the 2016-2025 period released Wednesday, the new opera house does not belong to the group that will receive funding priority in the 2021-2025 plan.

Since the city has just recovered from the pandemic, it needs to focus investments on social welfare and economic development, according to the Management Board of Industrial and Civil Engineering Construction and Investment Projects.

The plan to build an opera house in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in Thu Duc City was approved by the municipal legislature, the HCMC People’s Council in October 2018.

The project was estimated to cost VND1.5 trillion ($64 million) at the time, but the investor had later proposed raising it to almost VND2 trillion.

It was originally set to be completed within 2022, then pushed back to 2024.

The new opera house, which can seat 1,700, is to be built near the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge, which was completed in April. The bridge links Thu Thiem New Urban Area with Binh Thanh District.

When the opera house project was made public, it attracted a lot of criticism for skewed priorities at a time the city was facing many problems that needed urgent attention, including urban flooding, traffic jams and overloaded public infrastructure.

However, the city administration had said back then that building an opera house of international standards was "essential and urgent." It had argued that apart from the Saigon Opera House in District 1, the city did not have any other facility that could host international performances.

The new opera house would become a new icon of HCMC in the future.

Le Thi Huynh Mai, director of the municipal Planning – Investment Department, said that it was still working on procedures related to the project. The opera house will be built when "the city is allowed to increase the medium-term public investment for the 2016-2025 period and allocated funds for the project."

She said HCMC has many public projects still waiting for funds.

Its investment demand for 2021-2025 was VND672 trillion but the central government approved just VND142 trillion.