Customers crowd plastic stool restaurants on the repaved part of Ta Hien Street in Hanoi downtown. Photo: Ngoc Thang
Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem District has postponed its plan to repave its old streets with granite setts after local Party officials condemned the project as too costly.
Under the plan, 11 walking streets of the Old Quarter will be given sett paving in an attempt to “increase the value” of the already famous neighborhood.
The district also wanted to repave the sidewalks, install new street lights and upgrade underground water pipelines.
But after reviewing the plan, the Party unit of Hoan Kiem concluded that the district will not be able to afford the costly project, considering its limited resources.
It asked local officials to come up with a more feasible plan to give the Old Quarter a facelift.
Hoan Kiem District had been lobbying for the plan the past few weeks, even after critics warned that it’s not really necessary for the quarter to have expensive pavers.
The district argued that more tourists have visited Ta Hien Street since it was repaved in 2011. The repaving of only 55 meters of the street cost VND1.5 billion, or US$66,670.
The combined length of all 11 walking streets is 2.2 kilometers, which means the whole project in theory could cost up to $2.7 million.
Hanoi unable to afford to repave all Old Quarter streets with sett stones Related image(s)
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