An underground car parking lot in Hanoi (Photo: thethaovanhoa.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – A regulation recently
issued by the Hanoi People’s Committee requires basements be part of new
construction projects in the inner city.
The severe shortage of parking space in the
capital is behind the regulation, Hanoi Moi (New Hanoi) newspaper reported.
Some 590 parking lots with total area of 38.9ha
are currently in use in the central areas of the city, meeting only 8-10 percent
of parking demand in these areas, according to the city’s statistics. Most of
the parking lots are filled beyond capacity.
Due to limited public land, public parking lots
throughout the city only serve 66 percent of the city’s total parking demand,
precipitating the need for new constructions to have parking basements.
The regulation provides specific guidance on the
size of the basements.
It applies to constructions that are going to
get built within the area from Ring Road 2 to the city centre, within the area
from Ring Road 2 to Ring Road 4, as well as in satellite and eco-urban areas.
Per the regulation, all types of housing,
administrative constructions, and urban service constructions such as office
buildings, hotels, trade centres, hospitals, schools, and sports and recreation
centres will have to provide basements for motorbike parking.
[Hanoi to impose parking space rules for high-rises]
Meanwhile, some constructions will not be
allowed to provide car parking, including centres for the elderly and people
with disabilities, hospitals, boarding school dorms, and schools from nursery
and kindergarten to high school and vocational school.
The basements should be not more than five
levels, while their area should be equal to the construction at minimum, and
should not cross the construction boundary.
This is not the first time building basements has
been required, Tien Phong (Vanguard)
reported.
In April last year, the city’s Department of
Architecture and Planning issued an announcement requesting all high rise
buildings have at least three levels of basements.
It was then withdrawn after an objection from
the National Real Estate Association (VNREA), which argued that such a
requirement was contrary to pre-existing construction regulations.
The regulation also required construction
investors to repeat various administrative procedures, increasing costs and
time, according to VNREA.-VNA