VietNamNet Bridge - Besides the Symphony-Opera-Ballet Theater located in the 23/9 Park, which is scheduled for completion in 2015, HCM City will have another theater in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

A theater will be built at this site by 2015.

HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan has approved the local Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism’s proposed on the construction sites of the HCM City Symphony-Opera-Ballet Theater at the 23/9 Park in District 1 and another theater in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in District 2. Thus, in the near future HCM City will have two more new theaters to serve the needs of the city dwellers.

City leaders also directed the concerned departments to focus on the construction of the theater at the 23/9 Park so it can be completed in two years.

Early this year, the HCM City People's Committee agreed on a policy of building the Symphony-Opera-Ballet Theatre at the 23/9 Park and assigned related departments to start implementing it.

The theater is designed with two auditorium which can accommodate 1,700 people, facing the Ben Thanh Market with an area of 1.2 hectares (more than 1/10 of 23/9 Park) and surrounded by Ton That Tung, Le Lai and Pham Ngu Lao roads.

Many architects said that the theater should not be built at this location because this area is populated, with many high-rise building around that will reduce the value of the theater. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City still lacks green spaces and it needs to relieve construction works for the park rather than doing vice versa. They proposed to build the theater in the Thu Thiem new urban area as it was planned more than a dozen years ago.

In order to select a suitable location to build the theater, in mid-June, the HCM City People's Committee held a seminar on this issue. While architecture, planning and urban development experts disagreed with the construction of the theatre at the park, artists and cultural activists supported the plan.

T. Van