The Hanoi authorities and the investor consortium are finalizing plans to solicit public feedback on the location and route—at a 1:500 scale—of the Red River Scenic Boulevard project.
The decision to seek broad public input was made given the project’s exceptionally large scale, which will directly impact the lives, land, and livelihoods of approximately 247,000 people living along both banks of the river.
Meanwhile, this mega-project has recently been facing complex and intractable issues of great concern, and the Hanoi authorities have had to extend the deadline by an additional six months to finalize investment procedures for key projects.
The City People’s Council’s recent decision to request an extension has exposed the reality of this colossal project—with a planned area of over 11,400 hectares and a total investment of nearly 737,000 billion dong—revealing that the mega-project is currently floundering, likened to a chicken caught in a hairpin.
It is reported that this project was hastily and grandly launched in late December 2025, but to date, not only has the detailed master plan not yet been officially approved, but the process of soliciting public feedback as required by regulations has also not been carried out.
The fact that the consortium of three investors—Dai Quang Minh, Truong Hai, and Hoa Phat—must simultaneously carry out small-scale construction work while seeking public input to adjust the master plan highlights an illogical and puzzling approach to project implementation. That is: build first, legalize later, relying entirely on special mechanisms.
