Hanoi approves $77 million underground parking lot
A $77-million underground parking lot is expected to be built under Thu Le Park in the west of Hanoi by the end of 2020.
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The current open-air parking space in Thu Le Park. Photo by VnExpress/Vo Hai
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Thu Le is one of the biggest parks in the city, spreading over 29 hectares and with a zoo, an amusement park and green space.
The construction will cover 72,000 sq.m on six floors, one of which will be earmarked for administrative and technical purposes. The first basement of around 16,000 sq.m will be used mostly for shops and restaurants, with only 1,800 sq.m used for parking.
Subsequent basements will decrease in size, with only the fourth and fifth used solely for parking.
When completed, HLI will also share the area on the surface of the project with Hanoi Zoo Company Ltd. The city committee did not reveal specific plans for this area.
The city has approved the cost of VND1.8 trillion ($77 million), of which 20 percent will come from HLI and the rest from banks. It has been licensed for 50 years.
According to plans approved last year by the Hanoi People’s Council, by 2030 the city will have 1,480 public parking lots with an area of nearly 1,200 hectares.
Of them 74, mainly in the inner city, will be underground, and 450 will be high-rise with the rest being ground-level lots.
At a meeting with voters in Hoan Kiem District in mid-2018 People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said private companies would be contracted to build lots to solve the city’s parking problems.
They have been asked to build them in places such as the Cultural Palace, Thong Nhat Park, Cau Giay Park and the Hanoi Opera house, he said.
According to its Department of Transport, the city’s roads have 6.5 million local vehicles in addition to those driven in from outside.
But the land available for parking and public parking lots only meets 8-10 percent of their needs, and the rest are forced to park in places like hospitals, office buildings, sidewalks, alleys, schools, and vacant lands at construction projects.
