Ha Noi will start the construction of a resettlement area in March as part of a project to move some 26,000 residents from the city's overcrowded Old Quarter.

A small alley in Ha Noi's Old Quarter. The city plans to move 6,500 Old Quarter households to Long Bien District in an effort to preserve heritage sites.

The residents will be resettled at apartment buildings in Long Bien District's Viet Hung Urban Area, said Lam Quoc Hung, Vice Chairman of the Hoan Kiem District People's Committee.

By 2020, the project will resettle 6,500 households, according to the Hoan Kiem District People's Committee.

The project aims to decrease the population density from 823 people per ha in 2010 to 500 in 2020, improve living conditions and preserve heritage sites in the Old Quarter.

Hung said that the city would move the first 1,500 households to the resettlement area after the construction finished by the end of 2017. Among them, 533 households with 1,856 residents were forced to move because they were living in heritage sites, government agency or school areas. The rest of the households would be encouraged to move.

He said that each household would be given 30sq.m in a resettlement apartment and would have to rent or buy the rest of the apartment. Those not wanting to move to resettlement apartments will be compensated for handing over their houses to local authorities with an additional VND100 million (US$4,700).

He added that households would be able to sell their resettlement apartments but could not return to the area where they used to live.

The resettlement area, which cost the city VND5 trillion ($238 million), includes 16 eight to nine-storey apartment buildings and a 15-storey complex with a shopping mall, apartments and public facilities. Resettled residents will have access to kindergartens, medical centres, walking streets and public spaces.

Additionally, 39 per cent of resettled households will have access to kiosks to sell their products on the ground floors of all buildings. The kiosks will be arranged into groups of products.

VNS