(TT) - Ho Chi Minh City will have six new satellite suburbs by 2020, under a planning blueprint unveiled on Tuesday to prepare for the southern hub’s expansion over the next decade.The new urban plan, drawn up by the city’s Department of Construction, has been presented to the municipal government, the HCMC People’s Committee, and will soon be submitted to the national government for approval, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The plan has been designed to avoid a continuation of the current problem of rampant construction that has left sections of the city a messy jumble of houses, shops and office buildings.
Under the plan, HCMC will expand to the northeast, north-northwest, south-southeast and southwest.
The city’s main administrative heart will be in the current inner-city districts 1 and 3 and the northeastern suburb of Thu Thiem, which is still under construction.
The six new satellite urban centers, along with the existing suburb of Saigon South Phu My Hung, will be on the outskirts of HCMC, forming the gateway to neighboring regions. The seven satellite suburbs will be linked by a beltway.
The expansion will result in HCMC doubling in area from the current 210,000 hectares, as the population increases from 7 million now to 10 million in 11 years time.
The expansion of HCMC will occur alongside already-approved projects, such as a new international airport in Long Thanh Province and the trans-Asia Highway, now under construction.
Under the blueprint, each HCMC resident will have an average of 65 square meters of housing by 2020, much more than the current 14 square meters per head.
According to the HCMC Construction Department, the details and cost of the expansion will be decided after the plan is approved by the national government.
