$1mn LED lighting project in northern Vietnam removed less than 2 yrs after launch
Saturday, November 19, 2016, 13:07 GMT+7
The administration of the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong has earmarked more than a million U.S. dollars on installing an artistic LED system to light up its main streets, only to abolish it less than two years later.
The LED-lighting decoration system, consuming a total investment of VND24.5 billion (US$1.09 million), was inaugurated early last year to celebrate the Lunar New Year and the 60th anniversary of the city’s liberation day.
The project has modern, beautifully shaped LED lights installed along several streets, mostly on the 2km Le Hong Phong Street. The installation for Le Hong Phong Street alone costs VND14.65 billion ($654,018).
The LED decorations boast colorful lights and are shaped in Vietnamese conical hats or flying seagulls.
However, the entire system started deteriorating shortly after inauguration, with the Hai Phong administration eventually deciding to get rid of it earlier this week.
Most of the LED-lit conical hats were in poor conditions with their metal frames exposed, threatening the safety of anyone who travel beneath them, whereas the seagull-shaped lights have been said to be offensive, as they looked more like panties than the birds.
These are seagulls or...? Photo: Dan Tri
A city’s power and lighting company has finished removing the entire LED lighting decoration by the middle of this week, and a new project is slated for implementation to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year, falling late January 2017.
“The new project will be implemented by the municipal construction department, instead of the culture department,” Tran Huy Kien, deputy head of secretariat of the city’s administration, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
The contractor of the now-removed LED lighting system is the Hanoi-based Son Lam Tourism Co. Ltd.
Son Lam Co. did put the project to maintenance in May 2015, but the system continued to fall into poor conditions shortly thereafter.
In early 2016, the second repairs were launched for the project, but still failed to improve things, driving the municipal administration to put a complete end to the project.
Son Lam Co. is also the contractor of a VND200 billion ($8.93 million) light and music fountain project in the city’s downtown area. The project later proved ineffective and a huge disappointment to local residents.
Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
