Hanoi (VNA) - Ten years after beginning renovation work on oldapartment buildings in Hanoi, the city has renovated 14 of some 1,516 oldapartment buildings, a seminar has reported.

Vice Chairman of the city People’s Committee Nguyen The Hung said renovatingold apartment buildings was very difficult.  

Although the municipal authorities, concerned offices and experts have mappedout plans, they were extremely hard to implement, he said.

At a recent seminar to discuss renovating and rebuilding old apartmentbuildings, a representative of the Hanoi Department of Construction said most old apartments in the city built inthe 1960s-1990s in the four inner districts are out of date.

Statistics from the department show that the city has about 1,516 old apartmentsbuilding with two to five floors.

In 2003, the city People’s Committee started assigning investors incollaboration with district authorities to carry out surveys and build masterplans for a total of 93 apartment buildings.

So far, 14 rebuilt apartment buildings have been put into use and five othersare under construction, while four are in very poor shape and need to bedemolished as soon as possible.

Construction experts agreed that the key issue was the consensusbetween investors and residents living in old apartment buildings.

In 2015, the Government promulgated a decree defining the responsibilities ofowners of apartment flats to renovate their places of residence and at the sametime to solve the problems in the renovation of old buildings, according to Directorof the city’s construction department Le Van Duc.

“However, there are still some regulations that are not suitable with realsituation in the city, especially in the process of renovating and rebuildingthe whole old building,” he said.

Therefore, the department proposed six policy mechanisms, including criteriafor listing dilapidated old apartment buildings on renovation plan; mechanismof renovating and rebuilding condominiums; selecting investors; compensationpolicy and resettlement assistance; and financial mechanism for projects.
 
Several proposals such as offering land clearance compensation, raisingbuildings’ height, reducing resident density, increasing underground areato build more facilities at new apartment buildings were mentioned byexperts at the seminar.

Selecting suitable investors and resettlement policies for residents living inold buildings was also recommended by experts.

However, Dr Vu Thi Minh from the National Economic University said increasingthe number of floors in new apartment buildings could make the urban landscapemore cluttered.

She urged the city to develop policies for building underground areas atapartment buildings for the commercial purpose. “It is a sustainable financialresource for the renovation and rebuilding of old apartment buildings,” shesaid.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Urban Development and Planning Association Dao Ngoc Nghiemsaid the function of a building after renovation wasn’t necessarily forresidential purposes, but could be a multi-functional urban area.   

Construction expert Dao Van Bau from the association said that work shouldbegin on apartments that need to be renovated or rebuilt immediately.

According to the Ministry of Construction’s criteria, a residential apartmentmust have a lifetime of 50 years, however, most of the old apartments are only30-40 years old but are deteriorated.

The city People’s Committee’s Vice Chairman Nguyen The Hùng said when planningthe renovation of an old apartment building, offices need to set criteria forproject durability, landscape architecture, and rights of residents.-VNA