VietNamNet Bridge – After 12 universities
now located in the inner city of Hanoi
relocate to the suburbs what will the land be used for? This is the hot topic of discussion amongst
Hanoians. Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem, Deputy Chair of the Hanoi
Urban Planning and Development Association, former Director of the Hanoi Planning and
Architecture Department, talked about the issue.

Nghiem said
that 20 years ago, Hanoi’s
authorities once asked universities in the inner city to relocate. However, the
request was not fulfilled due to the lack of determination of the local
authorities and schools.

The capital
city planning project in 1998 stipulated that it was an urgent task to relocate
schools and relocate factories which pollute the environment. However, the
schools did not relocate, and a part of the land has been appropriated by
individuals who have turned the land into private accommodations. The Hanoi Economics
University and the University of Technology
are typical examples.

Experts
believe that it is necessary to relocate universities now because many schools
are reportedly overloaded with poor facilities. Do you think so?

Now Hanoi has nearly 70
universities and junior colleges with nearly 700,000 students. Those numbers do
not include one million in-service students or those who follow short-term
training courses. The number of students is equal to the population of the two
crowded districts. At some schools, every student has 7-8 square meters only,
while the standard requirement is 55-60 square meters.

It is
necessary now to verify the real situations of schools to set up the criteria
for schools to leave. In the last 10 years, the number of universities,
including private schools, has increased sharply. Only the places with historical significance, should be
remain where they are.

The main
reason behind the failure in the relocation plan was that no capital fund could
be created.

Some
factories, which were ordered to leave, left large land areas where new
apartment blocks have arisen. What do you think the land left by the
universities should be used for?

We should
prioritize using the land for public space and construction works that serve
the interests of the public. We should not build high density houses here,
because the central area does not have any other land. The green space in the
inner city is very low at 1.09 square meter per head. Meanwhile, the figure
should be two square meters per head at minimum. And if Hanoi wants to become an environmentally
friendly city, it will need to have 5-6 square meters of green space per head.

In 1998,
the five districts of the inner city of Hanoi
only had 960,000 people, while the figure jumped to 1.4 million by early 2009.
In 1998, we set up the goal of relocating 160,000 people and keeping 800,000 in
the inner city. However, the plan completely failed because the population did
not decrease but it increased to 1.4 million by 2009

There are
very few cultural works that serve people’s lives. In 1954, Hanoi only had 610,000 people, but it had 13
cinemas, not including theatres. Meanwhile, despite the sharp increase in
population, the number of cinemas has not significantly increased .

Many new
urban areas have arisen in the places on which there were once factories, thus
putting harder pressure on the central area.

But experts
say that schools need to sell their land to real estate developers to get money
or they will not have money to build their schools on new places in the
suburbs.

It is not
true. The city’s authorities, urban planners and educators need to sit together
to discuss solutions on capital arrangement

It is
estimated that in order to relocate 12 schools, we will need some 100 trillion
dong. I know that some schools and associations will work together on the
issue. We will need to learn from what other countries have done.

Source: Tien phong