Drivers park on the pavement and street in HCM City’s District 1 due to a lack of parking space (Photo: vietnammoi.vn)HCMCity (VNA) - Chairman of the HCM City’s People’s Committee NguyenThanh Phong has urged the Department of Transport to replace unqualifiedinvestors of underground parking lot projects that have been delayed for morethan 10 years.
Speakingat a recent meeting on car parking lot projects, Chairman Phong said thatinvestors lacking financial capacity must be replaced and that a new call forinvestor should be launched.
Phongalso asked the department to identify more locations for underground parkinglots and to work closely with the Department of Planning and Investment toensure the progress of the projects.
Heurged the department to work with the Department of Construction to compilestatistics on the parking capacity of existing underground parking lots ofbuildings in the city. The data would be posted on the internet for the public.
Undera city traffic development plan by 2020, the total area for bus stations andparking lots would be 1,146 hectares, of which 520 ha would be for automobileparking.
Thecity has determined four locations to build underground parking lots inDistrict 1, including Le Van Tam Park, Trong Dong Stage, Tao Dan Cultural Parkand Hoa Lu Stadium.
However,all the four underground parking lot projects in District 1 have been delayedsince 2005 due to complex administrative procedures and investors’ lack of capital,according to a report by the Transport Department.
Theproject under Le Van Tam Park, invested in by the Investment Development forUnderground Space Corp with 1.748 trillion VND (77 million USD), would have acapacity of 2,024 motorbikes, 1,260 cars and 27 buses, trucks and minibuses.
Theproject has been delayed due to the investor’s lack of financial capacity.
Meanwhile,the project under Trong Dong Stage, invested in by the Dong Duong Group, hasonly completed the technical design assessment.
Inaddition, the parking project under Tao Dan Park, invested in by thejoint-venture of the Vingroup and the Saigon Sports and Culture InvestmentCompany, with a total investment of 1,055 billion VND (46.48 million USD),would have a capacity of 1,198 automobiles and 896 motorbikes.
Anotherproject of the joint-venture is the parking lot under Hoa Lu Stadium with an investmentof 3.419 trillion VND (150 million USD).
However,the two projects have only finished the technical study report.
Thecity also plans to build an additional three underground parking lots forautomobiles in the newly expanded centre area of districts 1 and 3, and partsof District 4 and Binh Thanh, according to the Department of Transport.
Locationsbeing considered include September 23 Park, Ben Thanh Market, Quach Thi TrangPark, Bach Dang Wharf, Nguyen Hue Street and Chi Lang Park.
Anadditional 29 parking lots with a total area of 508 ha will be allocated todistricts and outlying districts, but locations have not been decided.
Inaddition to underground parking projects, the department has worked withinvestors to suggest building multi-storey, assembled parking lots in District10 and Binh Thanh and others at hospitals in the city.
Thecity rejected the construction of a multi-storey assembled parking lot at Lam SonSquare Street, saying it would affect the urban landscape.
Phongalso said that multi-storey assembled parking lots would be used exclusivelyfor parking, not for commercial purposes.
TheDepartment of Transport has asked the city to instruct the Department ofFinance to issue incentives and favourable policies to lure investment inparking lots.
Thedepartment also wants the city to ask the Department of Planning andArchitecture to specify underground construction norms so the city can developa master plan for underground parking.
Phongasked the Department of Transport to work with four investors in undergroundparking lots in District 1 and help them resolve any hurdles. If the investorsare unable to continue the projects, the agency should replace them and chooseother investors, he said.
Agenciesshould also submit proposals to the city for incentives and assistance toinvestors. If the city cannot resolve the problems, they will submit proposalsto the Government for approval.
Accordingto the Department of Construction, there are about 59 high-rise buildings withone to five basements each for parking in a 500-metre radius in the downtownarea.
Around13 of the buildings have three to five parking basements each, including KumhoAsiana Plaza Saigon, Eden, Saigon Center and Sunwah.
Thedowntown area is also home to 46 high-rise buildings whose parking facilitieshave a smaller capacity on Hai Ba Trung, Dong Khoi, and Nguyen Hue streets.
More than half of the 4,869 streets in HCM Cityhave areas mostly for parking motorcycles, according to the department.-VNA
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