Last year, the Government told Ha Noi People’s Committee to halt high-rise construction projects mushrooming at dizzy speed in downtown Ha Noi. The move was part of a drive to protect architectural space and technical infrastructure in an area home to many historically and culturally important buildings. The public welcomed the move.

After receiving the instruction, the committee immediately banned tall developments. However, last month, the same committee proposed the Government allow work to continue on more than 220 ongoing high-rise buildings.

Vice director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, Duong Duc Tuan, said the projects in four inner city districts had been halted despite meeting certain requirements - 91 in Dong Da, 60 in Ba Dinh, 53 in Hai Ba Trung and 19 in Hoan Kiem districts.

He said many projects upgrading or replacing degraded residential buildings in Thanh Cong, Giang Vo, Trung Tu and Kim Lien streets had been halted. This resulted in a waste of money and resources, and more worries for those living in them. Tuan said the move concerned developers who hope to invest in the city. "Projects that meet legal conditions should go ahead - and old apartment buildings should be rebuilt according to guidelines on residential density and social and technical infrastructure," he said.

However, vice head of the Viet Nam Architecture Association, Ngo Doan Duc, said the numerous, multi-storied buildings did not harmonise with the existing poor infrastructure. Traffic jams, power cuts and floods were on the rise, while public places, such as kindergartens, schools and hospitals, were overcrowded.

Ha Noi’s overall planning scheme aims to build a green and modern city in the next 20 years and, at the same time, reduce the population in central areas from 1.2 million to 0.8 million. But, said Duc, the lifting of the building freeze will make the target harder to reach.

For example, Hai Ba Trung District with a population density of 32,000 people per square kilometre, five times higher than that of Hong Kong, would have 53 more multi-storied construction. Nguyen Khai Minh, a resident of Tran Quang Khai Street, said a 21-storey building would soon appear in the street if the freeze was lifted. "There’s so many high-rise buildings here that I’m tired of it. We need something else, public gardens or parks full of trees where adults can walk and children can play," Minh said.

Ha Noi scholar Nguyen Vinh Phuc said the best solution was to forbid any more high-rise buildings in Ba Dinh and Hoan Kiem districts, where many invaluable examples of colonial architecture were found. However, Duc admitted, it was not easy to halt the projects.

In a previous kerfuffle, city authorities decided to dig up the beautiful red pavement around Sword Lake to replace it with a dull grey one. Following an outcry from the public, work on the VND40 billion (US$2.1 million) project was left unfinished and gave a bad image to the city.

Duc said it was time "we stopped managing construction dictated by feeling. New projects should not be licensed until a new specific roadmap for city development is finished," he said.

Rol.vn - Source: Vietnam News