Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring localities recently released a report on the general planning for a 50m-long corridor to protect the Saigon River and a riverside road section.

The riverside route could stretch from Bach Dang Wharf in District 1 to the Saigon Bridge in Binh Thanh District, along which multiple inner-city locations were designed to boast the best city views.

The Thu Thiem 1 Bridge, a golf course, and the Vinhomes and Saigon Pearl premium residential areas are among a number of significant sites situated along this route.

Most of them are parts of high-rise projects that would have sizable riverside parks.

Along this route, the 1km-long Ton Duc Thang Street encircling the section of the Saigon River is considered the most beautiful downtown, riverside street in the southern metropolis.

According to an architect’s impression of a road section alongside the Saigon River in a plan mapped out by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, Ton Duc Thang Street in District 1 would be connected with a fenced area of the former Ba Son port near the Ba Son Bridge, formerly known as the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge.

The municipal Department of Planning and Architecture said the city was set to develop a riverside road which would link Nguyen Huu Canh Street, which lies in District 1 and Binh Thanh District, with the Kinh Bridge in Thanh Da Peninsula in Binh Thanh.

The city planned to build an 800-meter-long riverside section spanning an area from the foot of the Ba Son Bridge to the Thi Nghe Bridge.

Accordingly, this 800-meter section would stay connected with the existing Ton Duc Thang Street in District 1 through an intersection under the Ba Son Bridge.

Regarding a project to build the Saigon Pearl residential area, the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture in 2004 issued a dispatch on developing a 1/500 ratio zoning plan for a 10.4-ha plot of land where the premium residential project was implemented, with a 15m-wide road alongside the Saigon River.

The city also built a 35m-wide riverside road near the Vinhomes residential area, an elementary and a middle school of Binh Thanh District’s Ward 22.

However, the two projected riverside sections are separated by a wall.

Meanwhile, according to the city’s road designing plan, the end of the projected riverside route would be some 920 meters long and roughly 35 meters wide.

The 1km-long riverside section in the Vinhomes residential area features adequate infrastructure facilities and the large Vinhomes Central Park. Given its vast and green space, the park is considered one of the most stunning in the city.

The municipal administration recently asked departments and relevant agencies to review the legality of this projected riverside route.

The transport department was also told to work with relevant units to work out a detailed plan to build part of the riverside route from Ton Duc Thang Street to the Binh Trieu Bridge in neighboring Binh Thanh District.

In related news, architect Vo Kim Cuong, former deputy chief architect of Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that it is necessary to develop a route alongside the Saigon River. Part of this route took shape in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, stretching from Bach Dang Wharf to the Saigon Bridge.

The southern metropolis had come up with a plan to develop this riverside road, the architect said.

Cuong underlined the need to start work on riverside sections in inner-city areas before taking into account the feasibility of a project to develop a hundred-meter-long road alongside the Saigon River from the city to southern Tay Ninh Province.

The architect anticipated that the project would create a beautiful riverside road running from the Saigon Bridge and passing through the internal roads of Saigon Pearl, a premium residential compound.

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