Hanoi’s Vice Chairman Phi Thai Binh has asked Vinaconex to design a plan to rebuild 16 apartment blocks in Thuong Dinh, Thanh Xuan district.

An old apartment block in Hanoi.

These blocks were built in the 1960-1970s for workers of the Thang Long Tobacco Plant, the Hanoi Mechanical Factory, the Hanoi Gold Star Rubber Company and others. Each apartment is from 8-16sq.m only. All blocks have been damaged seriously though they are the home to nearly 10,000 people.

Vinaconex was assigned to work out a plan to rebuild 16 old apartment blocks on 17.2 hectares for over 8,000 people. These blocks will be 3-5 stories only. Apartments will be at least 45sq.m each.

Vinaconex will build an additional nine apartment blocks of 20-30 stores on 6 hectares of land and two office buildings, a school and a sports ground.

Vinaconex’s manager Le Quang Vinh said that the area for construction is limited while the number of people who need to be resettled is high.

Vinaconex will submit the plan to the Hanoi government in October 2009.

Hanoi is implementing another project to rebuild 14 old apartment blocks for 7000 people on Nguyen Cong Tru street. The total investment for this project is VND7.5 trillion.

The city has many old apartment blocks that were built 40-50 years ago for workers and government employees. Most of these buildings are dilapidated, endangering the residents. However, necessary funding is still short.

VietNamNet/VNE