Hanoi’s urban renewal blitz leaves homes demolished and families relocated

HANOI – Rows of townhouses torn down in hours, roads ripped up by bulldozers, and city blocks reduced to rubble in the name of progress – giant construction sites litter Hanoi as it races ahead with urban renewal.

A “100-year masterplan” for the Vietnamese capital includes new bridges, subway lines and riverside developments.

Hundreds of thousands could be displaced to make way for construction, the authorities say, as the city of eight million people prepares to accommodate twice as many people by 2045.

Communist leaders hope Vietnam will be a developed country by then, buoyed by breakneck growth and spurred by their huge infrastructure investments.

But the speed of implementation has unnerved residents, made some homeless and left many more fearing the same fate.

“I have never seen the authorities acting that quick,” said Mr Hung, a 51-year-old businessman whose house was torn down in April for a US$750 million (S$960 million) bridge spanning the Red River.

“My dad had lived there all his life; he got to know every corner, everyone. Now, he saw it all demolished in a blink,” he added, asking to be identified only by his first name.

Mr Hung said he received 10 billion dong (S$485,000) as compensation along with a rural plot of land – but that the home’s market value was nearly triple that.

The city having another bridge is “good for all, but not for us”, he added. “We are unlucky to be the sufferers in this giant restructuring of Hanoi.”

No joke

A city of less than half a million for most of its thousand-year history, Hanoi grew dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s as Vietnam underwent market-oriented reforms.

Many migrants from the countryside built homes on land they did not formally own, creating sprawling, semi-planned neighbourhoods with narrow, winding streets.

The city has since formalised construction and embarked on multiple rounds of renovation.

But those plans “were often joked about because they stayed as posters on the wall and little was implemented”, according to Professor Danielle Labbe, an urban planning professor at the University of Montreal who focuses on Vietnam.

Now, the 100-year masterplan is charging ahead.

Top leader To Lam has declared a “new growth model” that includes a major building blitz. He preaches less red tape and faster decision-making, leading to a flurry of project approvals, analysts say.

With seven new bridges planned and more than 1,200km of metro and rail lines, the Hanoi redevelopment is expected to cost more than US$2.5 trillion over two decades.

Roads are also being widened and drainage systems improved, in anticipation of flooding risks stemming from climate change.

More than 11,000ha along the river is slated to become a network of residential developments and parks – with roughly 250,000 residents relocated to make way.

The state media reported that overall, as many as 860,000 people could be uprooted. The authorities denied the figure but did not specify an alternative.

Hanoi’s architecture and planning department did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

Many Hanoi residents support modernisation, with Prof Labbe calling the population “very pro-development”.

But the rapid pace of change and lack of public consultation have bred resentment.

The masterplan ran to more than 1,000 pages, according to Prof Labbe, but was only “opened for comment for something like 10 or 15 days”.

“Plans didn’t use to be approved and implemented so fast,” she said.

‘No greater pain’

Ho Chi Minh City also has a 100-year masterplan, as Vietnam embarks on an infrastructure drive that parallels that of its giant communist neighbour to the north, both in scale and execution.

“To me, the influence of Chinese planning is very clear,” said Prof Labbe.

Retired house cleaner Phan received her final eviction notice in February and her four-storey home is slated for demolition this week.

The 10-person, three-generation household split up and moved in with other relatives.

The authorities offered a slight discount on a much smaller apartment costing US$76,000.

But because, like many, they did not have title to the land under their home, they were compensated only US$19,000 for building costs.

“So now, the family is in a very difficult situation and has to borrow money,” said Ms Phan, 69.

“Our family used to eat together, sit together, and live happily as three generations under one roof,” she said, breaking into tears.

“Now the family is broken apart, everyone scattered in different places. There is no pain greater than this.” AFP