Another 100 trees will fall in Saigon as city wants to clear traffic near airport

By Vi Vu   August 12, 2017 | 02:57 am PT
Another 100 trees will fall in Saigon as city wants to clear traffic near airport
Trees on Hoang Hoa Tham Street leading to Tan Son Nhat Airport will be felled for road expansion. Photo by VnExpress
Saws will be brought out this month as the city wants to increase road capacity for traffic to and from its international airport.

Ho Chi Minh City’s transport department has announced a plan to chop down more trees, this time to give way to heavy traffic near Tan Son Nhat Airport.

The plan is to fell 102 trees on Hoang Minh Giam and Hoang Hoa Tham streets stretching two to three kilometers from the international airport, local media reported.

Saws will be brought out onto the streets between August and December. Another 21 trees there will be moved to a garden in the city.

Authorities said the move will increase road capacity near the airport, where traffic jams currently last for hours every day, despite recent opening of several overpasses.

Trees are frequent "victims" of urban development in Vietnam.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the tree chopping spree has been going on non-stop for the past three years since it started work on its first metro line.

Hundreds have been felled so far. The city is set to move and cut down 300 trees along Ton Duc Thang, which has one of the most beautiful canopies in the city, to make way for a metro station and a new bridge.

Hanoi in June also announced to cut down 1,000 decades-old trees for road expansion, after having cleared many for other road projects.

 
 
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