Hundreds of new apartment projects and high-rise buildings, both on stream and under-construction, can be found along such streets as Belt Road No. 3, Le Van Luong, Hoang Minh Giam and Nguyen Trai in Ha Dong District.

At the Trung Hoa-Nhan Chinh Urban Area, currently considered the capital’s fastest-growing construction development spot, new buildings are being constructed at lightning speed and with high density.

This only puts more pressure on the already overloaded traffic system surrounding the area.

Just because an area already houses numerous apartment buildings does not mean no more projects are planned there, at least as it seems in Hanoi.

Several major condo complexes, including the 40-story Thang Long Number 1, 35-story Ecogreen City, 27-story Vinaconex 1, and Kim Van-Kim Lu urban area consisting of five blocks, with 36 to 45 floors each, have been put into use along the Belt Road No. 3.

But a similar number of new projects have been planned for the same area, and will soon open to tenants.

The legislative committee and its economics-budget counterpart under the decision-making People’s Council of Hanoi have questioned the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture over the mushrooming of apartments in the capital.

In response, the department said apartments prove to be an effective solution to issues brought about by rapid eco-social and urban development.

The department, citing its own statistics, said Hanoi’s population rises by around 200,000 people, equal to the population of a major district, on an annual basis, strongly affecting the city’s housing supply.

The Mo Lao urban area in Ha Dong District is one of the places that have the highest density of apartments in Hanoi.

Commuters in the capital city now complete some 25 million rides a day, but public transportation only accounts for four percent of them, or one million journeys a day.

Local authorities are thus exerting effort to speed up completion of key infrastructure projects, including the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban rail line, to ease pressure created by urbanization on the traffic system.

Fire safety is also a headache for regulators, in the wake of several apartment fires recently grabbing headlines in Vietnam.

Hanoi is now home to 1,075 multistory houses, buildings and apartment complexes, according to the municipal administration. Seventeen of these constructions have been found to violate fire safety regulations, even though they have been put into use.