The construction of a tourist area on land reclaimed from the sea, the first of this kind in Vietnam, will begin in Ho Chi Minh City’s outlying district of Can Gio in this September, announced the general director of the Can Gio Tourist City Corporation Nguyen Dinh Thai.
The US$400 million project is scheduled to be carried out in three phases with about 25 million cubic meters of sand to be used to level the area.
The reclamation would be carried out at on a 4-km section of April 30 beach between the Rach Lo and Ha Thanh estuaries.
It will create a 600 hectare area, of which 200 hectares will be earmarked for an artificial beach and the remainder for luxury villas, entertainment areas and parks, and a shopping center.
The district government has paid VND40 billion (US$2.46 million) as compensation for to households raising oysters on the site.
The project construction is scheduled to be finished by 2015. However, at a recent meeting with the People’s Committee of Can Gio District, city chairman Le Hoang Quan asked the project’s investors to hasten construction in order for the tourist area to become operational by 2013.
The project, the first of its kind in Vietnam to use land reclamation to develop tourism, boasts investment scale ranking third in Southeast Asia.
Located some 60 kilometers east of HCM City, Can Gio is now home to 160 plant species, more than 700 invertebrates, 137 fishes, and more than 40 vertebrates.
The district is also well-known for its mangrove forests which were recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Biosphere Reserve and the Vam Sat salt-marsh forest recognized by the World Tourist Organization as one of the two most sustainable ecological tourist sites in Vietnam. (Liberated Saigon, Thanh Nien Daily)
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