Parking problems at apartment buildings in Vinh city

Parking pressure

In fact, the shortagecar parking lotPublic transport is not a new problem for Vinh city but a common problem of Vietnamese cities, especially large cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.

Due to lack of parking, most of the residents' cars in large apartment buildings have to be parked outside the premises or on the street. During the day, if the weather is cold and rainy during rush hour and there are many cars passing by, the phenomenontraffic jamTraffic jams often occur, almost all streets of Vinh city are jammed partly due to vehicles parking and stopping on the roadway and sidewalks...

Vinh City's car density is among the highest in the country. Photo courtesy: Tien Hung

For example, in the apartment buildings: Bao Son (Nguyen Sy Sach street); Tecco, Dau Khi (Quang Trung street); other apartment buildings in Hong Son, Vinh Tan, Ben Thuy wards... at night, each apartment building has hundreds of cars parked in the premises and on the streets.

The reason for this situation is that investors in the process of planning apartment building projects for profit ignore the regulations on reserving land for parking as committed. In addition, the project approval process, the appraisal and licensing agencies of apartment projects are also somewhat lax when considering this condition.

Traffic jams occur frequently during rush hour in Vinh city. Photo: Hoang Quoc Ky

In fact, requiring apartment investors in Nghe An to reserve land or build multi-storey parking lots at the present time is not feasible because reserving 1-2 thousand square meters for parking or investing in basement parking is too large and takes a long time to recover capital.

In big cities in other countries, when applying for approval for large apartment projects or high-rise commercial centers, the licensing authority does not only build 1 basement for parking but 3-5 basements. However, in our country and especially Nghe An, not all investors can meet the above conditions because building a basement means that the investment cost will double compared to the ground level and the technical requirements are higher, so not all projects and contractors can do it.

Representative of an investor of a luxury apartment project in Hung Dung ward

Objectively speaking, from 2012 to 2018, there were too many apartment buildings in Vinh City built too easily when apartment projects in the city center were easily licensed and the infrastructure was not planned and invested appropriately.

Many high-rise apartment buildings are built on Mai Hac De Street, Vinh City. Photo by Viet Phuong

According to preliminary statistics, in just 7 years, nearly 50 apartment complexes (including many buildings) and apartment buildings (1 single house) have been newly built. In total, Vinh City currently has nearly 70 apartment buildings with over 3,200 apartments, but very few apartment projects have enough parking lots to meet the needs of the people.

In fact, in order to get their apartment projects licensed, investors took advantage of the time when regulations on granting apartment building permits were still loose and incomplete to put them into a fait accompli situation... Therefore, in Vinh City, there is an apartment building designed with 170-200 apartments, but only enough for 30-50 cars, less than 30% of the number of households. Currently, in the areas of Hung Dung, Hung Phuc or Ben Thuy, there are some apartment buildings where residents have only occupied less than 50% of the apartments, but disputes and lawsuits have occurred between investors and customers who are apartment buyers.

Bao Son Apartment - a hot spot for parking lots for families buying houses. Photo: NH

Although this apartment complex has not yet been established and has not been handed over to the ward for management, the ward Party Committee and authorities cannot sleep well with this building. Since mid-2020, there have been continuous disputes and lawsuits between customers, who are households, and the investor regarding power and water cuts and hanging of protest banners. At night, people's cars are parked on the sidewalks and the North Canal bank along Nguyen Sy Sach Street, which is not under the supervision of the ward police, but they still have to regularly patrol and keep an eye on them.

Mr. Pham Anh Hung - Chairman of Hung Phuc Ward People's Committee

Due to lack of parking space, people living in Glucy apartment building in Truong Thi ward have to park on the street or rent houses. Photo by Viet Phuong

Need for long-term, breakthrough solutions

In fact, people in apartment buildings have solutions to protect their assets. On the one hand, they take advantage of the apartment buildings to park their cars safely, even though they have to pay a monthly fee of 400,000 - 600,000 VND; on the other hand, due to the increasing demand for car parking, many families with large areas near apartment buildings often take advantage of car parking services. This can be easily seen when coming to apartment buildings such as Tecco Le Loi, Hung Dung, Quang Trung, Ben Thuy, Ha Huy Tap, Hung Binh, etc.

However, due to the increasing speed of purchasing personal vehicles, each family has not only 1 car but also 2-3 cars, so the pressure on parking is increasing. With the number of cars in the whole province reaching nearly 136,000, mainly concentrated in Vinh City, the pressure on urban infrastructure is very large. Up to now, although the city has invested tens of billions of VND to cut sidewalks and open right turns at some intersections, it is just like "a drop in the ocean" and traffic jams still occur frequently.

Although the city has invested tens of billions of dong to trim sidewalks and open right turns at some intersections, it is just a drop in the ocean and traffic jams still occur frequently. Photo courtesy

Parking lot in front of the Central Park gate in Le Mao ward is planned, overnight parking service in Vinh city. Photo: Nguyen Hai

A representative of the Vinh City Urban Management Department also said: While waiting for a breakthrough, long-term solution in planning and more popular overnight public vehicle parking services, people need to be more vigilant. If they have to park their vehicles on the street, they must install anti-theft warning devices and always keep their vehicles within sight. On the part of the police in wards and communes, it is necessary to increase patrol and surveillance forces at night to promptly detect and prevent new criminal phenomena, contributing to ensuring peace and property for the people./.