City to increase housing space

HCM CITY— The city targets building 39 million square metres of new housing during the 2011-15 period, increasing its per capita housing area to 17 square metres, the municipal People's Committee has announced.

The 2009 per capita housing area in the city was 14.3sq.m.

At least 25 degraded apartment buildings with a combined floor area of 350,000sq.m in districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, Binh Thanh and Tan Binh will be rebuilt in the next five years.

By the end of 2015, the city will complete 11 housing projects with a total floor area of 453,000sq.m, consisting of nearly 4,700 apartments.

More than 22 hectares will be set aside for developing seven low-income housing projects with 10,000 apartments having a combined floor area of 837,000sq.m.

These plans include nine projects that will accommodate 67,700 workers and 13,700 students.

The city will also relocate more than 13,200 households living along canals by the end of 2015. Of these, 4,500 households living along canals in district 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, Tan Phu, Binh Tan and Binh Thanh will be resettled during the next two years and the remaining 8,700 households will be relocated by the end of 2015.

The city has proposed that the Government amend the Housing Law to allow social housing projects to be developed in accordance with height restrictions on apartment buildings in the city, removing the current six-storey limit.

It has also proposed changes in the eligibility conditions for buying or renting low-income apartments during the five-year plan period, raising the limit from below five sq.m per person to 10sq.m. — VNS

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HCM City digs deep to resolve land shortage

Customers shop at Vincom Centre Shopping Mall in District 1, HCM City. The centre, which has seven underground floors, is the city's first project of its type. — VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Vy

HCM CITY — Many infrastructure projects in HCM City are making use of underground spaces as above-ground space dwindles with the city rapidly developing.

The first project of this kind was the underground facility under Chi Lang Park in District 1 under the Vincom Centre commercial/residential complex.

The centre, which was completed in April, has seven underground floors with a total area of 80,000 square metres.

At 20-metres deep, it has four upper floors for commercial services, restaurants and other services while three underground floors are used as parking lots.

Another underground project at Eden Quadrangle in District 1 will have four underground floors while a high-rise building with five underground floors will be built on the current site of Sai Gon Tax Trade Centre. These underground constructions will be eventually connected to each other and to the subway system's centre station in Quach Thi Trang Square by subway lines along Dong Khoi, Nguyen Hue and Le Loi streets.

Early this month, the construction of an underground parking lot began in Le Van Tam Park in District 3.

The city's first underground parking lot has 103,000 square metres, including five floors capable of accomodating 3,300 vehicles of all kinds and three levels for commercial services.

Another underground construction at Trong Dong Stage, District 1, is scheduled to be built by the end of this year.

The VND888 billion (US$46.5 million) construction built on 5,300 square metres includes a multi-level parking lot, commercial services and a stage.

There are also underground building projects that will be carried out at Hoa Lu Stadium and at a football pitch at Tao Dan Park.

In addition, most new or in-the-pipeline high-rise projects have or will have underground spaces.

Many experts said that building underground works was a current trend. According to architect Nguyen Truong Luu, when surface transportation cannot meet demand, building underground is inevitable.

But for effective and appropriate use of underground space, a comprehensive, detailed plan was needed, he said.

The underground spaces need to be connected to each other like an underground city, and a sensible arrangement of transport will reduce congestion in downtown city.

HCM City has no underground-space planning yet. Allowing investors to build separate facilities could create obstacles in later planning, Luu said.

He said that planning the underground network was necessary before further work is carried out. — VNS

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