Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said the city will not organize walking areas around Hoan Kiem lake on the occasion of the Lunar New Year in 2017, and continue to organize this project until 30th June next year.

This morning, the Hanoi City People's committe had a meeting with Steering Board of walking space in Hoan Kiem Lake area and its vicinity to hear the statement of operations since the beginning of September.

The experiment of walking space around Hoan Kiem Lake and vicinity started on 1st September 2016 and is expected to last until the end of 2016. In order to serve the people, the city has installed 7 automatic water selling machines; 6 booths showcasing souvenirs, handicrafts; a car selling drinks and 27 free wifi stations

According to the Steering board, after 4 months of experiment, the walking area has attracted domestic and foreign tourists, gradually restricted motorized vehicles, contributing to promote the image of Hanoi - City for Peace.

Specifically, the amount of domestic and foreign tourists, local people in the capital to visit and participate in activities in the waling area during the day reached average flow of 3000 to 5000 people, the evening about 15000 people to 20000 people.

International visitors and overseas Vietnamese to stay in Hoan Kiem district increased quickly, reaching nearly 1.4 million, an increase of 13.7% over the same period in 2015.

However, besides the results achieved, there are still some limitations such as the lack of parking space for vehicles on Saturday evenings or holidays, thus arising the problem of illegal parking places, overcharging in the areas Hang Hanh Street, Lo Su Street intersection, some on the Hai Ba Trung and Ba Trieu streets... some people, agencies parked the cars on the road, motorcycles on the sidewalk and behind security fences.

After listening to the report of the Steering board and other comments, Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said that the pilot project to organize walking space at Hoan Kiem Lake and its vicinity is the right decision to make cultural and entertaining space for people. Accordingly, the head of the city administration said that Hanoi will continue to experiment the waling area from 1st January to 30th June 2017. This plan is aimed to assess the impact of hot weather during summer time on the waling space.

Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee also pointed that on the holidays during the experimental project, Hanoi will organize walking streets in which directions. Especially on the occasions of 30th April and 1st May, if not on weekends Hanoi will organize walking streets. In the upcoming Lunar New Year, Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee decided not to organize walking areas around Hoan Kiem Lake area.

Tet lasts long, people go home and streets are deserted, moreover on New Year's eve all cars and motorbikes are forbidden that makes the walking space, so I think we are not going to organized walking streets during Tet, said Chung.