Army gives up land for Da Nang development

To have a prosperous Da Nang like today, the city government had a big "negotiation" and the army agreed to transfer to the city more than 2,000 hectares of military land.

Son Tra - Dien Ngoc Road (Da Nang City) was formerly a military airport. Photo: Huu Kha

Among them are locations considered sensitive in relation to national security. But thinking about the overall prosperity of a coastal city in the Central region, for the future of the city's people, everything has been arranged properly and harmoniously.

Giving up land to serve the people

Mr. Nguyen Dieu, former director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Da Nang City, said that in his 23 years as director, he spent nearly 20 years contacting the military with the persistent purpose of wanting the military to cede land to develop the city and serve the people's lives.

Nowadays, walking on the wide coastal road along Son Tra - Dien Ngoc, from Da Nang to Hoi An, few people think that behind it is a persistent negotiation between the Da Nang government and the army.

Many locations are considered quite sensitive in terms of defense, such as the land of Nuoc Man airport, Nguyen Tat Thanh street, and 2-9 street. But without these vital routes, Da Nang would forever be a fragmented urban area, not as well-planned as it is today.

Mr. Dieu said that in order to move a military unit to a new location, Da Nang City must be responsible to the Ministry of National Defense. The view of Da Nang City leaders at that time was to coordinate and support so that the military unit, when arriving at the new location, would have more spacious and solid facilities and infrastructure.

“To do this, I had to meet many military experts, who also said that in modern warfare, military bases and positions located in prime locations are not suitable and need to be relocated. The US bomb depots in Da Nang were previously located near the airport, but now they can be completely relocated out of the city to other better, safer places in peacetime,” Mr. Dieu said.

The results of perseverance

Mr. Dieu said that when building Thuan Phuoc Bridge, Mr. Nguyen Ba Thanh did not dare to think that Le Duc Tho Street would run through a military barracks area that was considered extremely important, could not be relocated, and the military did not agree to relocate it. But after several years of negotiation, the military agreed to move this military barracks area for the city to build a road.

Mr. Dieu also emphasized that if the city does not persevere, the Son Tra - Dien Ngoc road will not be straight as it is now but will have to curve down close to the sea, because the military believes that the land that the city wants the military to give up to build this road is a defensive weapons warehouse.

“At that time, it was almost a dead end. But Mr. Thanh told me to find out how important that warehouse really was and prove that it was not really important to ask for the Government’s opinion. In the end, I had to work for 2 months to find out and the truth was that its scale was not as big as people said. And the ammunition warehouse being located near the sea and near the city was also not good,” Mr. Dieu said.

Architect Hoang Quang Huy, chairman of the Danang Planning Association, said that when Danang became a centrally-governed city in 1997, the infrastructure was very weak, the roads were narrow, while there was a lot of defense land.

“Thanks to the determination of the city leaders in their goodwill meetings with the Ministry of National Defense, a large land fund was handed over. When the land fund was obtained, Da Nang City established a systematic urban planning, expanded roads, built residential areas and tourist areas,” Mr. Huy recalled.

According to Tuoi Tre