LookAtVietnam – The Ha Noi People’s Committee has suspended plans to develop a 9,000ha new urban area in the northern region of the Hong (Red) River.

The Ha Noi Urban and House Development Company has built accommodation for low-income people in Viet Hung Zone, north of Ha Noi.

To Anh Tuan, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture, said draft plans for the technical infrastructure would be halted until the master plan for the expansion of Ha Noi was completed in mid-2010.

Tuan said the department requested that work on plans for the new urban area be suspended in part due to a recent Government directive calling for planning projects in the city to be reviewed.

“Until the general plan for the city is finished, it will be impossible for detailed plans for one region to be carried out as they might overlap or be incompatible.”

According to the Prime Minister’s decision issued last year, work on expanding Ha Noi would be completed by 2020, with priority given to the northern region along the Hong River.

Ta Quoc Thang, from the Architecture of Design Consultancy, Construction and Technology Transfer Company, said it was right to postpone development of the region until it was known what greater Ha Noi would look like.

“If the master plan for greater Ha Noi has not been completed, the new urban development in the northern area of the river could lack the necessary technical infrastructure, such as a transport system,” he said.

Do Tu Lan, deputy director of the Urban Development Department under the Ministry of Construction, said it was envisaged that Ha Noi would be developed in a north-south direction due to the geography of the country. However, the Government later decided to develop the western part of the city as well.

“Plans to expand the city towards the west are being considered. Therefore, work on detailed plans for the northern region of the river needed to be halted until further research is carried out,” she said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News