Hanoi authorities don’t seem to be holding anything back when it comes to landscaping: the capital currently forks out VND53 billion (US$2.37 million) per year to mow the lawn on one street alone.
During a meeting of the Hanoi People’s Committee on Monday, Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung discussed the city’s current budget for maintaining Hanoi’s green spaces. According to Chung, the cost to landscape the capital’s public gardens and parks is putting a strain on its yearly budget, reports Tuoi Tre.
“It would probably startle everyone to know that the pruning of grass and trees along a 24-kilometer section on Thang Long Avenue costs around VND53 billion a year,” Chung shared at the meeting, according to the news source. “This is unacceptable.”
Chung attributed the high cost to the type of greenery planted on the avenue. “Trees can exist for hundreds of years, but topiaries require a lot of trimming, which is a waste of money. In other countries, they grow natural trees to beautify streets and don’t pay as much as we do,” he told Zing.
The chairman also stated that authorities are doing what they could to minimize wastefulness by prioritizing trimming work at sites with more pedestrian traffic, such as areas around Hoan Kiem Lake. Due to this move, the 24-kilometer highway has since been inundated with wild vegetation.
Areas along Thang Long Avenue are overgrown with weeds. Photos via VnExpress.
According to one member of the avenue’s landscaping team, her salary has been halved since the shift in priority at the beginning of July, reports VnExpress. Now she only works four hours a day instead of eight, earning VND2 million for 14 công, or 5,040 square meters.
At the meeting, Chung also announced that the northern hub has contracted with 24 firms to plant an additional 6,000 trees citywide.
[Photo via VnExpress]
