Waking dead: Skyscrapers to break ground in Saigon’s biggest cemetery

By Minh Nga   July 11, 2017 | 04:00 am PT
Waking dead: Skyscrapers to break ground in Saigon’s biggest cemetery
These graves at Binh Hung Hoa cemetery will be soon removed to give space for a residential areas. Photo by VnExpress/Thien Chuong
The city is looking for families to come forward before the remains of their loved ones are exhumed and cremated.

Ho Chi Minh City has approved a plan to develop seven new residential areas in Binh Tan District, one of which will be built on the largest graveyard in the city, Binh Hung Hoa.

The 40-hectare (100-acre) graveyard will lose its current occupants to make way for high-rise buildings, parks and public works, according to local media reports.

The city made the decision to clear the cemetery in 2008, but work to remove the 75,000 graves only started in 2016, when relatives were given until October 31 this year to relocate their loved ones.

The initial plan was to remove 16,500 graves this year, but by late May, 3,500 graves had been left untouched as no one had claimed them.

Binh Tan will exhume the bodies and cremate them if the families do not come forward, and no compensation will be paid.

 
 
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