The Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations has expressed
its disagreement with the construction of a highway linking West Lake
and Ba Vi district as called for in the "Hanoi Master Plan by 2030 With a
Vision to 2050".
VUSTA proposed the Office of the
Party Central Committee to deny the project's approval because it was
impractical and unrealistic.
VUSTA experts said the
proposal to construct the West Lake-Ba Vi Highway lacked a
scientific basis, especially considering that engineers in the capital
were currently focused on building the Thang Long Highway, Western Thang
Long Road, Lang-Hoa Lac Railway and upgrading Road No 32.
"The projection that the population of Hoa Lac Satellite City
in Son Tay district will reach nearly 1 million by 2030 is
groundless," said to the document signed by VUSTA's standing deputy
chairman Ho Uy Liem.
"Therefore, the West Lake-Ba
Vi Highway has no reason to exist. It would be a waste of land and not
suitable to traffic needs and the urban landscape."
The Master
Plan should focus on measures to prevent traffic jams, such as building
flyovers or tunnels, said VUSTA experts.
VUSTA said
the confirmation to locate the national administrative and political
centre, along with some ministry and sector offices, in Ba Dinh district
and the city centre under the revised Master Plan was reasonable.
However, the proposal to reserve land in Ba Vi district was
unreasonable because the location for official offices from now to 2020
was fixed and management of e-government would definitely improve.
"Ba Vi is a great ecological zone and a valuable lung for Hanoi .
It is home to a number of historical relics and famous landscapes, so it
needs to be preserved. We should not use the land there for
construction. Expanded Hanoi has a lot of area, so we can reserve
land somewhere else," the VUSTA document said.
Master Plan's proposal to keep the city's administrative centre in its
present location was unreasonable. The buildings housing the municipal
Party Committee, People's Committee and People's Council were downgraded
and too narrow, so they were not worthy of being the capital's nerve
centre, it further said.
Those offices should be upgraded or rebuilt somewhere near Hoan Kiem Lake .
VUSTA said the Master Plan was large in scale, covered a number of
fields and was developed too quickly by international consultants,
making it inadequate and impractical./.
