New Ha Noi masterplan unveiled

The Construction Ministry has submitted a revised Ha Noi Master Plan draft to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approval.

HA NOI — The Construction Ministry has submitted a revised Ha Noi Master Plan draft to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approval.

The draft confirms that Ba Dinh District is the country's political centre. The municipal administrative centre would remain near Hoan Kiem Lake.

Accordingly, national cultural centres will be linked with the West Lake-Co Loa, West Lake-Van Tri-Soc Temple, West Lake-Ba Vi axis and western West Lake transit routes.

Financial and commercial centres will be built in new urban areas. Transportation routes and key stations will be built in Ha Dong, Dan Phuong, Hoai Duc, Thuong Tin and Thanh Tri districts.

Administrative agencies for the Party, National Assembly, State and the Government will remain in Ba Dinh.

According to the draft, the ministry will be able to develop urban centres along the Hong (Red) River and in the West Lake-Co Loa area.

The city's southern centre would connect with road 4 and would go north through Me Linh, Dong Anh, Gia Lam and Long Bien districts.

The population in inner Ha Noi, from south of the Red River to ring road 2, should be reduced from 1.2 million to 800,000. The area would be designated as the Thang Long cultural and heritage preservation area.

Infrastructure, architect and green space in the area would be improved. The draft also mentioned that old collective houses would be upgraded or rebuilt. More trees would be planted and additional parking lots will be built.

The draft also suggested building five satellite urban areas in Hoa Lac, Son Tay, Xuan Mai, Phu Xuyen-Phu Minh and Soc Son with green corridors.

The city would construct six to eight lane expressways that directly connect with Ha Noi.

The transportation routes would include a north-south expressway; Thang Long Boulevard to northern Hoa Binh Province; HCM Expressway; and national highways 1,2,3,5,6 and 32.

The construction of the controversial Thang Long traffic axis, which would link West Lake and Ba Vi District, was also proposed in the draft. Under the plan, the capital would build eight urban railways, including five approved routes and three new ones that would go from Noi Bai-Phu Dien-Ha Dong-Ngoc Hoi, Me Linh-An Khanh-Duong Noi and Mai Dich-Yen So-Linh Nam-Duong Xa.

According to the draft, six subways in the inner city would be built and Ha Noi Station would be the transport centre for all of the routes. — VNS

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West Lake-Ba Vi highway gets go-ahead

HA NOI — The Ha Noi People's Committee has recently reversed its previous objection to the construction of the proposed Thang Long traffic axis which will link West Lake and Ba Vi District.

The decision was announced after a meeting of the National Examination Council of the Ha Noi Master Plan by 2030 with a vision to 2050.

Chairman of the committee Nguyen The Thao said that after carefully considering the project, the committee agreed that there was a need to build the axis to fulfil the need for a link between the administrative centre in Ba Dinh to Ho Tay District in the north.

The committee suggested that the highway end at Dong Mo Lake at the foot of Mount Ba Vi, but said that initially, the city should only build one section of the highway from ringroad No 3 to ringroad No 4.

Just three weeks ago, the capital's People's Committee asked the Government to reconsider a plan to move the national administrative precinct to Ba Vi District, and thus negate the construction of the Thang Long axis, saying that it was unnecessary. The committee also said that the road would require the relocation of about 300,000 residents.

The Ministry of Construction, however, insited that the road was necessary.

Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Dinh Toan said that the Thang Long axis would have three functions. First, it would help ease traffic pressure in western parts of the city including the Xuan Mai, Hoa Lac and Son Tay urban areas.

Secondly, beneath the axis, a water pipeline from the Da River would supply clean water to city residents and finally, the axis was likely to attract investment in cultural and entertainment centres.

This led to a lot of opposition from experts.

The Viet Nam Union of Science and Technology Association earlier this month expressed its disagreement over the issue. It said that the proposal to construct the highway lacked a scientific basis, especially considering that engineers in the capital were currently focused on other projects.

Experts added that it would be a waste of land and not suitable for traffic needs.

The Viet Nam Architects' Association said that if the administrative centre was not moved to Ba Vi District, a highway linking West Lake and Ba Vi District would be of no use to socio-economic development.

Commenting on the surprise move by the People's Committee, resident Nguyen Duy Duong said that the public would lose faith in city leaders if they continued to change their minds.

Ha Hai, another resident, could not understand why the matter had not been raised for public opinion. —VNS

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VUSTA deems Hanoi Master Plan impractical

The Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations has expressed its disagreement with the construction of a highway linking West Lake and Ba Vi district as called for in the "Hanoi Master Plan by 2030 With a Vision to 2050".

VUSTA proposed the Office of the Party Central Committee to deny the project's approval because it was impractical and unrealistic.

VUSTA experts said the proposal to construct the West Lake-Ba Vi Highway lacked a scientific basis, especially considering that engineers in the capital were currently focused on building the Thang Long Highway, Western Thang Long Road, Lang-Hoa Lac Railway and upgrading Road No 32.

"The projection that the population of Hoa Lac Satellite City in Son Tay district will reach nearly 1 million by 2030 is groundless," said to the document signed by VUSTA's standing deputy chairman Ho Uy Liem.

"Therefore, the West Lake-Ba Vi Highway has no reason to exist. It would be a waste of land and not suitable to traffic needs and the urban landscape."
The Master Plan should focus on measures to prevent traffic jams, such as building flyovers or tunnels, said VUSTA experts.

VUSTA said the confirmation to locate the national administrative and political centre, along with some ministry and sector offices, in Ba Dinh district and the city centre under the revised Master Plan was reasonable.

However, the proposal to reserve land in Ba Vi district was unreasonable because the location for official offices from now to 2020 was fixed and management of e-government would definitely improve.

"Ba Vi is a great ecological zone and a valuable lung for Hanoi . It is home to a number of historical relics and famous landscapes, so it needs to be preserved. We should not use the land there for construction. Expanded Hanoi has a lot of area, so we can reserve land somewhere else," the VUSTA document said.

Master Plan's proposal to keep the city's administrative centre in its present location was unreasonable. The buildings housing the municipal Party Committee, People's Committee and People's Council were downgraded and too narrow, so they were not worthy of being the capital's nerve centre, it further said.

Those offices should be upgraded or rebuilt somewhere near Hoan Kiem Lake .

VUSTA said the Master Plan was large in scale, covered a number of fields and was developed too quickly by international consultants, making it inadequate and impractical./.

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