The Hanoi People’s Committee will revoke licences for more than 364,000sq.m of public land because investors have been too slow to develop it or they have used it for the wrong purpose.

Vu Van Hau, director of the city’s Environment and Natural Resources Department, said during a recent inspection, 20 out of 420 projects, mostly in the districts of Hai Ba Trung, Chuong My, Thanh Oai and Phu Xuyen, had violated the conditions of use.

Some had been illegally transferred to other projects and some developers had let others encroach on the land.

Among the developers with the largest amounts of land being revoked are the Electricity Project Company, Ha Dong Garment Company, Gia Lam Irrigation company and Vinh Ha Food Manufacturing Company.

Nguyen Dang Hung, head of Chuong My district’s Environment and Natural Resources Department, said that six projects in the district would lose the use of State land. Nothing had been done on the sites for many years, creating big losses for the State.

Hau said that the department is completing legal procedures to take the land back. He said the municipal People’s Committee had extended the deadline by six to 12 months for 286 other projects that had failed to clear land held by them.

In the past year, Hanoi authorities have taken back 30,597sq.m of State land being used for purposes different to what had been nominated. The revocations are based on Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s decision to strictly management the use of State land./.