Da Nang suspends controversial river encroaching real estate project

Da Nang Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung recently asked the city's construction department and relevant units to tell investors of the Marina Complex project to "suspend its implementation to check and review legal records."

Dung said the project is being suspended following instructions from the Standing Committee of the municipal Party Committee and in the wake of public opinions expressed in the past few days.

The city's People's Committee has also requested that the construction department quickly consult experts, scientists and the central government's relevant ministries and departments regarding the project's implementation and report the results before May 3.

The real estate and marina development project would be built at the end of the extended Tran Hung Dao Street, which is now Le Van Duyet Street in Son Tra District. It would face the Han River on three sides and have a total area of over 17 hectares (42 acres), including 6 hectares on the river.

The city's authorities adjusted the projects plan several times. In 2017, the people's committee approved the project's environmental impact assessment and brought its total area down to over 11 hectares by reducing the area over the river to just one hectare.

Additionally, the planning of the area along the river was also adjusted to replace 13 high-rise (16-33 stories) buildings with just two. It would still have 57 mansions and a public walkway with a width of 8 meters (26 feet) along the riverbank.

Authorities also demanded that the project's investor not build walls and gates for the walkway so the public could access the riverbank area. Previously, it was planned that the area would be enclosed.

However, work on the embankment for the project's riverside began around five years ago and many hectares of water surface were filled with land. Currently the project has almost completed filling land up to the 731-meter embankment, and work on building infrastructure has begun.

Many experts and Da Nang residents have voiced opposition to the project over concerns it would affect the river's flow.

While the consulting units that had recommended the city to approve the project have asserted that "the project does not encroach on the river and does not affect the flow," some irrigation experts have disputed this.

Particularly, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Vu Trong Hong, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and chairman of the Vietnam Water Resources Development Association, stressed that "the Da Nang government should not let companies pour land into the Han River for real estate projects, especially in the current context of climate change."