Promoting the value of West Lake
On April 3, Tien Phong Newspaper organized a seminar "What are the boundaries in the great renovation of West Lake?" to exchange, discuss, and propose renovation solutions, towards sustainable, harmonious and culturally rich West Lake development.
Speaking at the seminar, Mr. Pham Van Thang - Head of West Lake Management Board - said that recognizing the importance of West Lake, city leaders and Tay Ho ward have had many directives to remove difficulties and obstacles, gradually promote the value of West Lake and achieve some positive results. From 2024-2025, the water environment of West Lake has improved significantly.
Currently, the ward has been and is implementing a series of projects and schemes to renovate and promote the value of West Lake. Specifically, the project to replenish water for West Lake. Accordingly, wastewater after being collected and treated to ensure monitoring has been replenished for West Lake.
The wastewater collection system around the lake has been implemented by the city in 2 phases. Currently, the project is entering the final stage of connecting the drainage system around the lake to the wastewater treatment plant for treatment.
In addition, the West Lake environmental improvement project is also being implemented. This is a very large project, carrying out dredging and treating sediment that has existed for a long time at the bottom of the lake. Along with that, the ward implements renovation, care, and embellishment of the flower garden system, lakeside landscape, and waste treatment to ensure urban aesthetics to have space for people to walk, rest, and exercise...
Preserve original heritage values
Speaking at the seminar, Dr. Architect Ngo Trung Hai - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association, Former Director of the National Institute of Urban and Rural Planning - affirmed that in the capital planning flow, West Lake is always positioned as a special landscape space.
We should not squeeze personal traffic close to the water surface but need to look at West Lake in the context of a smart cultural ecosystem, where all impacts must ensure transparency and preserve the original value of heritage" - Dr. Architect Ngo Trung Hai commented.
Dr. Ngo Trung Hai proposed a philosophy of approach through four aspects of "transparency" (transparency). That is visual transparency so as not to be blocked by concrete that obscures the view towards the lake; cultural transparency so that the new does not squeeze but together honors the old; functional transparency to maximize publicity for the space around the lake; and finally, ecosystem transparency.
Mr. Bui Manh Hieu - Director of West Lake Flower Valley - shared that currently, every morning, especially on weekends, West Lake becomes an ideal destination for thousands of people to walk, cycle, and exercise with rare fresh air in the heart of the city.
Therefore, Mr. Hieu proposed to keep West Lake in accordance with the initial orientation of prioritizing pedestrians and bicycles, and at the same time organize parking lots on the outer belt. People and tourists when coming here should park their cars outside, then use friendly public transport or walk to fully experience the lake space.
From the perspective of a traffic expert, Dr. Tran Danh Loi believes that all urban planning projects should start from traffic planning instead of just focusing on space organization.
For West Lake - a scenic spot with spiritual values and biodiversity - maintaining the current status of infrastructure close to the water surface is the optimal solution.
With West Lake, the breakthrough solution proposed by Dr. Tran Danh Loi is to establish an "Access Ring" surrounding to separate the motorized traffic flow from the core heritage area. This Ring is established by the main roads: Vo Chi Cong - Nghi Tam - Thanh Nien street - Hoang Hoa Tham - Ring Road 2.
Accordingly, motor vehicles are only allowed to approach the boundary of this belt. To support, the city needs to prioritize planning a static infrastructure system including underground and high-rise parking lots at strategic transition points such as Lac Long Quan area, Red River bank, Tu Lien bridgehead and Tran Binh Trong flower garden.
This static infrastructure system will be combined with public electric vehicles to bring people and tourists inside the lake. The establishment of a remote protection belt not only relieves personal traffic pressure but also creates soft boundaries to help conserve the natural ecosystem.
At the 31st session held on January 27, the Hanoi City People's Council approved the investment policy of the Project to invest in renovating and promoting the value of the West Lake area and the lakeside landscape traffic route according to the public-private partnership PPP method - build-transfer (BT) contract type. The preliminary total investment of the project is about 30,151.83 billion VND.
