Many Hanoians have expressed anger at a proposal by an investor to fill in the Thanh Cong Lake to use land for a resettlement building.
A corner of the Thanh Cong Lake.
Hanoi leaders recently asked Viet Hung Urban Development and Investment JSC (VIHAJICO) to make a design plan for the Thanh Cong Apartment Complex which will be built to resettle residents at 67 two-to-five-storey apartment buildings in Thanh Cong Ward, Ba Dinh District.
After working with a Singaporean consultant agency, the company has just sent their plan to the city people's committee and Department of Construction in which they proposed to take one hectare in the 10-hectare Thanh Cong Park including the lake area to have enough land for the project.
VIHAJICO explained that with this plan they can carry out the project more quickly and easier as they don't have to move residents to temporary housing.
However, the proposal has faced huge opposition from local people who said that Hanoi already lacks public space while the city is seeing rising congestion following the high-rise apartment building boom in the centre.
Many people have shared their comments and ideas on social networks, calling the proposal "stupid" and "heartless" which will badly affected the city's environment and local's entertainment activities.
"The lakes are considered the lungs of Hanoi," a reader, Pham Van Manh, wrote in a comment to Dantri/DTiNews. "We have to protect all of them including Thanh Cong Lake. I live near the lake and I see it attracts thousands of people who do exercise or get fresh air every day."
In response to the public's anger, VIHAJICO has just issued a press release in which they vow to compensate the 1-hectare park they take by expanding the lake northwards.
"The total area of the lake and the park would still be the same," the press release claimed. "We will dig the lake further to the northern area during our site clearance to compensate for the area we take."
The investor also claimed that most of resettlement building projects in Hanoi are now facing the same problems of site clearance and resettling residents.
"We can solve these problems with this plan, the residents can stay in the old flats while waiting for the new ones, the company said."
Dtinews