Developing urban railway systems requires innovation in land transfer methods.

Công Luận•18/01/2024

At the thematic session on land clearance and acquisition for urban railway development and TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) areas, within the framework of the Scientific Conference on the Development of Urban Railway Systems in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City held on January 18th, experts discussed and shared experiences to research and develop relevant institutions for urban development towards public transport, urban planning and renovation, land use, investment, and management and operation of urban railways.

Developing urban railway systems requires a change in land transfer methods (Figure 1). — Delegates attending and chairing the thematic session.

Separate the land clearance work into an independent component project.

Speaking at the conference on the advantages and disadvantages of separating land clearance into a separate sub-project to be implemented immediately after the investment policy is approved, in order to ensure construction site availability before bidding - Experience from the Hanoi Capital Region Ring Road 4 construction project, Deputy Director of the Hanoi City Investment and Construction Project Management Board for Transportation Works, Do Dinh Phan, said that the Hanoi Capital Region Ring Road 4 construction project is a nationally important project. The project has an investment scale of VND 85,813 billion, with a total length of 113.52 km, passing through three provinces and cities: Hanoi (57.52 km), Hung Yen (19.3 km), and Bac Ninh (36.7 km).

More than 1 year and 6 months after the National Assembly approved the investment plan (June 2022), the three provinces and cities have mobilized the maximum strength of their political systems, simultaneously implementing procedures and shortening the time for completing tasks. To date, the project has achieved certain results and is on track with the set schedule.

Identifying land clearance and resettlement as the "key of keys" that must be implemented early, Hanoi City has proposed separating land clearance into an independent component project to be implemented immediately after the investment policy is approved.

From then on, land clearance no longer depended on specialized technical factors of the project. Land clearance was carried out immediately after the red line boundary was approved, and when the construction component project was approved, the land clearance demarcation documents would be continuously updated and supplemented accordingly (ensuring that land clearance was done one step ahead) to ensure that the construction site was available before the contract was awarded.

“Separating land clearance into an independent component project to be implemented immediately upon approval will take advantage of the project preparation time, allowing land clearance to proceed one step ahead. At the same time, in implementing land clearance work in each locality, policies need to be applied to ensure the best interests of the people. Hanoi city should select resettlement areas with favorable conditions in terms of land and transportation, ensuring the best possible conditions for the people. Local Party committees and authorities should pay attention to the lives and livelihoods of people subject to relocation, aiming for new homes that are better than their old ones so that people can live and work with peace of mind. They should also issue additional mechanisms and policies to serve compensation and resettlement support when implementing the project,” Mr. Do Dinh Phan shared.

Developing urban rail systems requires a change in land transfer methods (Figure 2). — Professor Dr. Dang Hung Vo – Former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, presented his paper at the conference.

2 issues related to land transfer

Professor Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, believes that in the TOD model, attention should be paid to two issues of land transfer: land for developing public transportation routes connecting "grid cities"; and land transfer to reorganize urban spaces within these "grid cities". Regarding land for developing public transportation routes, the mechanism of state land acquisition is entirely reasonable because these are infrastructure projects for the public good, not for profit.

Regarding elevated train lines, Professor Dang Hung Vo suggested that further consideration should be given to how to exploit the space beneath these lines in a profitable way. For subway (Metro) lines, land acquisition for station construction is necessary, but compensation for land plots above the subway lines where high-rise buildings cannot be constructed should also be considered.

“Land laws need to specifically regulate the scope of exercising surface rights for each land parcel to ensure transparency in the scope of exercising surface rights and to clearly define the compensation level for the space above and below the land parcel. To date, the lack of a unified legal approach is also a legal obstacle to urban development, especially in densely populated cities,” Professor Dang Hung Vo stated.

Regarding the issue of reforming urban spatial organization in "grid cities," Professor Dang Hung Vo stated that the mechanism of state land acquisition cannot be applied because it is impossible to acquire all the land of an existing city. Furthermore, the land acquisition mechanism significantly increases implementation costs, and it may even be impossible to find sufficient funds to implement it. The most suitable "land transfer" mechanism in "grid cities" is the "contribution of land use rights and readjustment of land," which has been successfully implemented in many countries. The remaining issue is finding an implementation roadmap that is appropriate to the current state of "grid cities."

“In industrialized countries, urban governance mechanisms are often implemented with some independent functions in development decision-making to create competition among cities. In this competition, the land decision-making function is the most important because it is the only resource for urban development. Residents of a city directly elect the city leader and the city council, which acts as a bridge between the community and the city leader,” emphasized Professor Dang Hung Vo.

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