Experts aid Red River plan

With experience in construction on the banks of the Han River, which passes Seoul, the South Korean experts will aid local authorities in devising appropriate developments for the banks of the Red River.
According to architect La Kim Ngan, deputy director of the Rural and Urban Zoning Institute, the river will become a central part of the city as development progresses.
“For long time the river has been considered one side of the city. Now it will be the centre of the city,” Ngan said.
The architect said the most important factor in ensuring the feasibility of the project was an ability to control the flow of the river, which often floods in the wet season.
The key requirement should be dyke safety, which will reduce flooding and increase the value of the land along the two sides of the river.
“A large land source exploited here can be used to develop urban areas to ease the population density in the centre of Hanoi,” Ngan said.
More than 3,000 hectares of land will be used for the development of urban areas in Tam Xa, Giua, Long Bien, Tu Lien, Linh Nam and Tran Phu after zoning.
According to the visiting Korean experts, the Han River is similar to the Red River in that it is long and sometimes fierce. However, they said that now that the river is controlled it has become one of the prides of Korea.
Seoul spent six years developing the banks of the Han and its riverside precincts now feature 85 kilometres of garden areas, entertainment centres and urban developments.
One of the new areas, the Yeoido area, which was built on an island in the centre of the river similar to that in the middle of the Red River, has become the city’s political centre.
According to the agreement between authorities from the two cities, the project have been implemented over 16 months from July 2006.
According to a report from the Hanoi People’s Committee, more than 170,000 people live in the 10,000ha along the banks of the Red River.
The area includes 27 communes in Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Hoang Mai, Long Bien, Gia Lam and Thanh Tri districts.
The section of the Red River to be developed stretches for 40km from the Thang Long Bridge to Khuyen Luong Port.



No. 775/August 21-27, 2006