HCM City steps up patrols to reduce traffic congestions

Traffic congestion on Thu Thiem bridge in HCM City

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Transport has added more patrols to handle traffic congestions during the holiday season.

A department representative said the patrol force at Cat Lai port will strictly handle violators for parking in the wrong spots.

The department has also arranged forces to regulate traffic at the busy An Phu and My Thuy intersection in district 2.

Tran Quoc Khanh, chief inspector of the city’s Department of Transport, said they would also arrange forces to strictly handle illegal buses at bus stations and regulate traffic at streets that lead to the station such as Kinh Duong Vuong, Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Dinh Bo Linh, and National Road No 13.

In addition, the city will also arrange an inspection force at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, where traffic jams often occur during the holiday season.

Nguyen Chi Trung, Director of the city’s Public Transport Centre, said the city has four shuttle bus routes to transport passengers to and from the airport. The buses are expected to ease traffic congestion in the airport area. The centre will adjust the number of buses to meet the demand of passengers.

Bui Xuan Cuong, Director of the municipal Department of Transport, said that from next year, the city will deploy solutions to ease congestion and prevent traffic accidents.

The solutions include better State management of urban traffic, development of transport infrastructure, improved passenger transport and cargo transport services, an application of technologies in transport management.

According to the department, the city has 28 congestion hotspots. It has successfully handed some spots such as the My Thuy intersection in district 2, Dan Chu roundabout that connects district 3 and district 10, Phan Van Tri-Pham Van Dong junction, and Tay Hoa intersection in Thu Duc district.

Unexploded steel-pellet bomb unearthed in Hai Duong province

As many as 550 pieces of a steel-pellet bomb used by the US army during the war in Vietnam have been safely removed from the land plot of a family in the northern province of Hai Duong. 

After being reported about a fragmentation bomb by the family in Nhi Chau ward of Hai Duong city, the sapper force under the provincial Military Command unearthed the steel-pellet bomb on December 27.

Two days later, they discovered 550 pieces of the steel-pellet bomb and successfully destroyed 250 out of them.

It is estimated that hundreds of pieces still not found in this area, which was previously a bomb crater. 

The sapper force and local authorities are working hard to remove unexploded bombs in the area to ensure safety for locals. 

The work is scheduled to take about seven days.-

Nature Education Centre opened in Đà Nẵng

Kids join a painting experience at Sơn Trà Nature Reserve’s Nature Education and Experience Centre in Đà Nẵng. 

In a ceremony yesterday, the central city of Đà Nẵng debuted the first Nature Education and Experience Centre on Sơn Trà peninsula to provide a space for school students to explore the biodiversity of Sơn Trà Nature Reserve.

The centre, which was built by the Đà Nẵng–based Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet, with total fund of VNĐ1.2 billion (US$53,000), will offer free education and nature experiences to more than 3,000 school and university students in the city. They will be able to study the fauna and flora of the reserve and learn about endangered species. The centre will help raise awareness of environmental and wildlife protection.

The centre, 6km from the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve, will also host field trips into the jungle for students and nature lovers. Activities will include wildlife study, painting contests, cleaning the environment and planting trees on the peninsula.

Last year, in co-operation with the city’s education and training department, GreenViet launched a field education programme for 300 teachers of junior secondary schools on nature and wildlife protection in the nature reserve. More than 25,000 school students and 3,000 local residents joined nature awareness education activities in the reserve between 2012 and 2017.

The reserve, which covers 4,400ha, is home to more than 1,300 red-shanked douc langurs – an endangered primate species – and more than 1,000 plant and 370 animal species.

A group of 15 students in the city also joined a ‘green guard’ team to protect the forest and build a safe habitat for the endangered langurs in the reserve.

Re-use Everything Institute Inc of Finland provided $25,000 for biodiversity research in the reserve to help protect the primates in 2017. 

Tuấn sold to Viettel

Vũ Minh Tuấn. — Photo vtv.vn

Midfielder Vũ Minh Tuấn announced on Facebook that he has been sold by Thanh Hoá FC to Viettel ahead of the upcoming V.League 1 season.

The 14 time national team player signed a three year deal, with the transfer fee and his wages undisclosed.

Tuần had played for Thanh Hoá for one season after leaving Quảng Ninh FC.

Thanh Hoá are currently in tough financial circumstances, having lost sponsor FLC Group in November and are now run by the provincial sports department.

Before Tuấn, midfielder Ngô Hoàng Thịnh, goalkeeper Nguyễn Thanh Thắng and striker Pape Omar all left the club for other Vietnamese sides after contracts expired.

Tuấn is Viettel’s second new signing after securing the services of national team captain Quế Ngọc Hải last week, following the expiration of his Sông Lam Nghệ An contract.

Tuấn will start training with his new team in January. 

Residents not resettled due to project delay

The land area that was allocated for resettlement of the six households is now being used by other people. 

Six years have passed but many residents in Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District have still not been resettled after their land was revoked as part of the city’s plan to build a park in the district, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

Work on the technical infrastructure for Ba Mẫu Lake Park started in 2011.

To make space for the park, 14 households in Phương Liên and Trung Phụng Wards transferred their land to the project investor.

They were then allowed to move to a resettlement area in Phương Liên Ward. Eight households received the land allocated and built houses to settle there.

However, the remaining six households have not yet been resettled because their allocated land was illegally appropriated by other people, forcing them to live temporarily in other areas and face a number of difficulties.

“I am 84 years old now. Since my family gave our land to the local authorities for the construction of the project in 2012, our living conditions have deteriorated,” said Nguyễn Thị Uy, a resident in Trung Phụng Ward.

“We have no land to build a house, so our extended family of four generations has to live temporarily in a communal house in Trung Phụng Ward,” she said.

Nguyễn Văn Long, a resident in Phương Liên Ward, said although they received a decision from authorities on the land allocation six years ago they have not yet received the land.

“We were willing to transfer our land to local authorities so they could build the public project, but our new allocated land was illegally appropriated by other people. We had to live temporarily with friends or relatives,” he said.

“We sent petitions to local authorities at different levels many times but nothing has changed,” he noted.

The project to upgrade Ba Mẫu Lake in Đống Đa District was initiated in 1990 but then was delayed, turning the lake into a pollution hotspot with rampant land appropriation.  

In 2010, Hà Nội authorities approved a plan to renew the project and build and complete technical infrastructure for Ba Mẫu Lake Park.

The project started in 2011 with total investment capital of VNĐ12.2 billion (US$530,000). It included upgrades to a 700-m road surrounding the lake, building roads connecting the lake with nearby residential areas, construction of a stone embankment for the lake, the installation of lighting systems and planting trees.

The project was then delayed due to financial shortfall and difficulties in land clearance.

Vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Đống Đa District, Nguyễn Hoàng Giáp, said the six households were allocated a land area of 300sq.m for resettlement, but the land is now being used by two other households. The land was illegally appropriated before being sold to these households.

The district authorities have finished a plan to compensate and resettle these two households to take back the land for the resettlement of the six households, according to Giáp.

The task is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 if the Ba Mẫu lake project investor is allocated enough capital.

He added that the lack of capital meant the project investor failed to pay temporary settlement fees for the six households that have not yet been resettled as regulated. 

Cà Mau fishermen help authorities regenerate marine resources

Fishermen catch young clam for breeding in Cà Mau Province’s Ngọc Hiển District. 

Authorities in the southernmost province of Cà Mau are working hard to protect aquatic species in an effort to regenerate them following a long bout of overfishing, and fishermen are strictly following restrictions imposed on them for this.

Many are only catching fish and aquatic species that have reached the stipulated size, Đỗ Chí Sĩ, head of the Fishery Sub-department, said.

The sub-department releases a large number of juveniles of aquatic species into the sea every year.

The province has a coast of more than 254km, accounting for a third of the Mekong Delta’s coastline. It also has 240sq.km of mangrove forests and alluvial grounds which are also habitats for aquatic species.

Therefore, fishing is one of the province’s strengths, but aquatic resources have been dwindling because of over exploitation.

Now the province is also raising awareness among fishermen of the need to protect marine resources.  

Sĩ said advocacy activities were regularly organised to educate fishermen in sustainability.

Huỳnh Văn Trải, owner of a fishing boat in Ngọc Hiển District’s Tân Ân Commune, said local authorities were focused on regenerating aquatic resources and regularly organise courses to educate fishermen on the issue.

“At the training courses, we [fishermen] were explained the importance of aquatic resources to fishing activities.”

After taking part in the training courses, he and other fishermen only catch fish of a minimum regulated size and use fishing nets that conform to regulations.

Nguyễn Thanh Tuấn of the Ngọc Hiển District Fisheries Extension Station, said Tân An Commune in co-ordination with the district’s marine authorities regularly inspected local fishing activities and found that fishermen fully complied with the new regulations for protecting aquatic resources.

The province is installing black boxes on fishing vessels longer than 15 metres to record their route, speed and other data and provide support for search and rescue in case of accidents or natural disasters.

Around 1,500 of the province’s more than 4,000 fishing vessels need to install the black box.

Sĩ said 100 have already done it, adding the province is one of the first in the country to make this stipulation.

Cà Mau targets a catch of around 160,000 tonnes of fish and other creatures, including 10,000 tonnes of shrimp, annually by 2020.

Last year its fishermen caught more than 200,000 tonnes.

Phú Thọ residents stuck with delayed projects

Illustrative photo. Delayed projects leave land unused in northern Phú Thọ Province. 

As many as 47 approved projects in the northern province of Phú Thọ have been delayed for years, some for up to a decade, affecting the daily lives of people living in the project areas.

Vice Director of the province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment Vũ Văn Nhất said the delayed projects occupy a total area of more than 186 ha.

Eleven delayed projects are in the city of Việt Trì, six are in the town of Phú Thọ, five in Tân Sơn District, one in Thanh Ba District, four in Cẩm Khê District, one in Đoan Hùng District, two in Thanh Sơn District, six in Lâm Thao District, three in Thanh Thủy District and eight in Tam Nông District.

Most of the projects were approved years, ago but few moves have been to complete land clearance, compensation or resettlement of families that need to move to make room for construction.

For example, dozens of families in Vân Phú Ward in Việt Trì have been waiting to be resettled for 15 years since the Hùng Vương University project was approved.

Without compensation they could not relocate, but living in the project area, they could not fix their degraded houses or build new ones.

Roads to their houses are degraded and tap water is not available, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday.

In another project, Hòa Bình Minh Ltd Company rented 5,000 sq.m for 49 years to implement a handicraft production project in Sơn Vi Commune, Lâm Thảo District. But in the six years since receiving the land, the company did nothing but build a fence.

Environment official Nhất said that in most of the delayed projects, investors did not have the financial ability and experience to start construction.

In many cases their use of land fell outside their registered purpose or they did not fulfill investment commitments.

“Some investors want to transfer the land to get profit rather than implement their registered projects,” Nhất said.

He said it was difficult to stop such delayed projects as the current Land Law allowed investors to delay implementing projects for up to four years.

Hoàng Công Thủy, Vice Chairman of Phú Thọ Province People’s Committee, said the province was looking to improve its ability to assess and select investors to ensure the success and efficiency of approved projects.

In the last few years, the province’s Department of Planning and Investment has recommended revoking the investment licences of delayed projects.

The department reported it had withdrawn the licences of 31 projects which were delayed for seven to 10 years. 

Basketballer Thịnh retires

Trần Tiến Thịnh. — Photo bongro24h.vn

Trần Tiến Thịnh, a key basketball player of both Danang Dragons and HCM City has decided to retire from competition.

“Following the Việt Nam Basketball Association (VBA) League 2018, I thought a lot about retirement. At the age of 26, I think that I can’t play basketball longer. I want to find stable work to take care of myself and my family,” said Thịnh.

“It is a very difficult decision for me when basketball in the country is developing, especially the upcoming VBA season will be very interesting. However, I still have a chance in the VBA next year with a possible coaching position at Danang Dragons,” Thịnh added.

A 1.91m power forward, in 2016, the 26-year-old helped Danang Dragons win the VBA title and led HCM City to the trophy of the National Basketball Championship.

Last year, he alongside the HCM City team once again won the National Basketball Championship.