Over the past week, several houses on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Tan Binh District have been dismantled, awaiting a road expansion project for the T3 domestic terminal of the Tan Son Nhat Airport.
The project will expand a section of Hoang Hoa Tham Street from a military barrack near the airport to the Hoang Hoa Tham Overpass-Cong Hoa intersection.
The road, which is currently 8-10 m wide, will be expanded to 22 m.
The project has a total investment cost of over VND250 billion ($10.13 million), with land compensation costing VND180 billion to clear 4,200 m2 of land.
On Feb. 24, around 20 families on Hoang Hoa Tham Street dismantled parts of their houses after they received their compensation.
The spaces at over 150 locations must be cleared for the project, with most families accepting the land compensation payments they get.
Tan Binh District still has around 20 families who have not handed over their land for the project, according to the HCMC Management Board for the Investment and Construction of Traffic Works.
Pham Van Quy said he hired 10 workers to dismantle his houses after handing over 50 m2 of land to authorities.
Quy has rented the row of houses to run a restaurant for over 25 years.
After the houses' owner received VND6 billion worth of compensation money, he has been renovating for a week.
Currently, his restaurant has to be temporarily relocated 150 m away.
"Losing part of the area affects business, but I support the road expansion," the 70-year-old said.
Most of the house areas that Quy rented out have their walls dismantled, leaving only the beams behind.
About 70 m from the site, the house of 64-year-old Ho Van Thoai is being renovated. His house has to be retracted by around 4 m, resulting in a loss of around 20 m2 worth of land.
Thoai and his workers dismantled the old walls before rebuilding the porch.
"Compared to market prices, the land compensation money could not match it, but for the sake of common interest, our family agreed to hand over the land and hope that the project is completed soon," he said.
During the construction, Nguyen Xuan My's house continued to sell goods. He uses plastic sheets to cover the front, preventing dust from getting to the goods.
My (in yellow hat) watches the workers operate on the water pipes. He has just received VND2 billion worth of compensation after his house got retracted by 3 m, resulting in a loss of 15 m2.
"As soon as I received the compensation, I dismantled the house and handed over the land immediately. I hope that the other families will agree to the compensation, so that the project can begin soon," he said.
In a corner of Hoang Hoa Tham-Cong Hoa, land under the management of the military has been barricaded, waiting to be handed over.
Once the handing over is completed, the main investor will begin construction of the project in March, according to the traffic committee.
The project to expand the connective road for the T3 terminal is part of several projects to decongest traffic at Tan Son Nhat Airport. After the expansion, the road will connect the Cong Hoa route with the Tran Quoc Hoan-Cong Hoa route so that vehicles can enter the T3 terminal.
