Experts question Hanoi street repaving Several local experts have stirred their concerns over a project to use natural stone for paving in all of Hanoi’s 12 districts, saying that it would be a waste. The project is aimed to pave 936 streets in 12 districts across Hanoi from now until 2020 with natural stone with duration of 50-70 years.   Hanoi aims to pave 936 streets in 12 districts with natural stone from now to 2020 The move comes as the city’s pavement continues to show signs of degradation, hindering pedestrians to walk as well as worsening the image of the city. The work has been carried out in many streets in Hoan Kiem District such as Nguyen Du, Quang Trung and Ba Trieu. Architect Pham Thanh Tung from the Vietnam Association of Architects said that natural stone should be used at some certain areas of Hanoi such as the Old Quarter or pedestrian streets to save the costs and make the city more sophisticated. However the burying of utility cables and water pipes underground has not yet been finished on many streets while the city has implemented the natural stone pavement. Last year, the city finished putting utilities underground on 17 of 18 planned streets. So far this year, the work has been done on just 41 among the 56 targeted streets. The slow pace is attributed to difficulties related to licenses and budget. Architect Tran Thanh Binh said that in many cities in the world stone is used for streets. However, Hanoi needs to reconsider this as it would be useless to spend that money on the city’s pavements only for it to be illegally encroached upon by private businesses as at present. It is more vital for the capital city to focus on the urban infrastructure management instead of doing things which are not urgent, Binh said. TPO