Development of satellite cities: The case of Hanoi, Vietnam

The news of Hanoi City People’a Council’s approval of the plan to develop a satellite town to Hanoi in December has attracted constant attention from the public and the urban planners’ community.

The vision of the planners is explained as in 2050, central Hanoi and its 5 satellite towns will create an ecology that provide accommodations for hundreds of thousands of people. Hence, they will help to alleviate the pressure of population on the current facilities of central Hanoi, such as industry, high technology industry, education, health care, tourism, et cetera.

                                         City Council Members voting for the new plan

The 5 satellite towns include Hoa Lac, Son Tay, Xuan Mai, Phu Xuyen and Soc Son. All of these towns are in the radius of 2-3 kilometers from the central city. According to the plan, these towns will have completely standardized technical and social facilities. 

                           Hanoi central city and the five satellite cities according to plan

According to Tien Phong newspaper, the new satellite town, Hoa Lac, will be home to approximately 600,000 people when completed in 2030. Hoa Lac is planned to be a town centralized in technology development and education in order to provide high quality human resources, thus, attract migrations. According to Saigon Times Daily, Nguyen Nguyen Quan, head of the Urban Committee, the area now has already attracted 81,000 residents and this number is expected to rise to 150,00 in 2025. He suggested reconsideration of the plan.

Just as Nguyen, there has been many suggestions and debates surrounding the new plan, taking into consideration statistics, eligibility, practicality, consequences and cultural effects of the plan.

Concerns has been raised by some in terms of preservation for traditional craft villages, traditional cultural landmarks located in the planned area for these satellite towns. This is, in fact, a legitimate concern given many of the previous government city planning attempt that have consequences on the cultural as well as environmental ecology of the city that needs to be preserved.

Another factor that will need special attention from the planners and the city council is the practicality of the plan. Adopted from a successful example of a foreign city, Hanoi urban planners have reason to expect highly in its success. Yet, it should be noted that Hanoi is a very special urban environment where the locals adopt strikingly different methods of transportations (which include an overwhelming number of scooters and motorbikes) and lifestyle (street markets and a street-based lifestyle). Consequently, people prefer the living environment that can grant them easy and time-efficient access to grocery stores, shops, commercial centers and working place. People here would actually prefer access to their necessities over leisure facilities. Hence, a big question arose, how will the plan of migrating people from the city center with convenient access to their necessity prove its practicality in a special city like Hanoi?

Many questions still revolves around the new plan. Yet, with serious effort from the government, the city council, scientists, researchers and architectures, the people of Hanoi have reasons to believe that the plan may prove to be successful and hence, help alleviate the pressure on the 3.444 kilometers square capital city of Vietnam.

Sources

1. Nguyen, A. (18 January 2018). Phat trien do thi ve tinh trong de an quy hoach chung Ha Noi. Architecture Magazine of Vietnam Association of Architecture. Retrieved from https://www.tapchikientruc.com.vn/chuyen-muc/phat-trien-thi-ve-tinh-trong-quy-hoach-chung-ha-noi.html

2. The Saigon Times Daily. (6 Dec 2017). Retrieved from http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/57402/Hanoi-approves-Hoa-Lac-satellite-town.html

3. Quynh, H (5 December 2017). Hanoi se xay "sieu do thi" ve tinh Hoa Lac. Vietnamnet. Retrieved from http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/thoi-su/ha-noi-se-xay-sieu-do-thi-ve-tinh-hoa-lac-414845.html