Land owned by agencies and former ministry headquarters must not be used for housing projects because the relocation is aimed to ease Hanoi’s inner-city population.
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| Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem, former Head of Hanoi City's Planning and Architecture Department |
The relocation must help ease traffic jams and environmental pollution for inner-city areas and the old headquarters should instead be used for public works to improve the quality of life for locals, he suggested.
“Currently, limited land poses many difficulties for people living in Hanoi’s inner-city areas. Public green space area stands at just 1.09 square metre per person compared the required level of 5 to 5.5 square metres,” he said.
Many public schools in Hanoi face chronic overcrowding. The average area for each student at a school in the inner-city areas is less than 5 square metres compared to the standard of 15 square metres. Some wards in Hai Ba Trung District are in dire need of pre-schools and primary schools.
“The city is also facing a parking space shortage. Hanoi’s inner-city population is now estimated at 1.2 million and the figure is expected to reduce to 800,000 by 2030; however local parking lots only meet 10% of demand. The capital city only uses 0.3% of its total area for parking lots compared to the required 3%.
As planned, 19 agencies and ministries will be relocated. To reduce the city’s traffic congestion, agencies and ministries should work out measures so that staff who live in the centre city will not have to travel to Me Tri and the west of West Lake to work, which will cause even more traffic pressures, because many of them have cars.
Land is the public asset managed by the State. Agencies and ministries hire it and are allowed to hold long-term management rights, therefore, Hanoi authorities are not entitled to confiscate this land. However, in the Draft Law on the Capital City, Hanoi proposed a special mechanism for the use of these specific land plots after the agencies and ministries relocate.
For the efficient reuse of this land, Hanoi needs to prepare a clean land fund for the relocation of agencies and ministries and the city should deal with site clearance works so that the capital can manage its land.