Removing difficulties for Ho Chi Minh City Book Street

On October 21, the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City held a meeting to resolve difficulties of the City Book Street.

Ho Chi Minh City Book Street always attracts visitors. (Photo: LINH BAO)

Regarding parking space for visitors to the book street, Mr. Bui Xuan Duc, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Company, said that the current difficulty of the book street is the lack of parking space for visitors to the book street.

Since its establishment (2016), under the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the City Book Street has been arranged with 2 parking lots at the entrance gate at Cong Xa Paris and Hai Ba Trung Street.

However, from August 1, the parking lot right at the gate of Ho Chi Minh City Book Street from Hai Ba Trung Street to Nguyen Du Street managed by the Youth Volunteer Force must stop operating.

According to Mr. Bui Xuan Duc, although there is a newly opened parking lot for people coming to the Book Street in the City Telecommunications campus (No. 125 Hai Ba Trung, Saigon Ward), it is not enough to meet the parking needs of readers and visitors.

Representative of City Book Street Company spoke at the meeting.

Mr. Tran Anh Vy, Head of Investment Department (Ho Chi Minh City Telecommunications) said that the unit always creates conditions for people coming to Book Street to park their vehicles inside the City Telecommunications campus. However, the parking area is limited, leading to an overload situation.

With the hope that the Book Street will return to normal operation as before, Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Company proposed to re-establish 2 parking lots at Cong Xa Paris and Hai Ba Trung street gate.

At the meeting, a representative of the City Department of Construction said that from 2025, the City Book Street can park vehicles on the sidewalk if necessary, but must comply with licensing procedures, regulations in the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety and Decree 165 (specifically Article 21, Clause 3 of Decree 165).

“In addition, the Book Street needs to follow the Resolution of the People's Council (Resolution 15), which stipulates the fee for temporary sidewalk use. At the same time, to do this, the Book Street must have the consent of the City People's Committee, coordinate with Saigon Ward to get opinions from the Police, residents, and surrounding households in assessing the level of impact when parking on the sidewalk. In short, it is still possible to re-license two parking spots on the sidewalk for the Book Street according to the law,” said a representative of the Department of Construction.

At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the city's Book Street model is a quite successful model nationwide in developing reading culture in the community. This is also a very special tourist destination, attracting many domestic and international tourists to visit.

The city is summarizing this model to consider expanding it to other areas in the city such as Binh Duong , Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and at the same time aiming for Ho Chi Minh City to become a book city in the future.

One direction of the renovated City Telecommunications opens to the City Book Street (Nguyen Van Binh Street)..

Therefore, recently, the information that the City Telecommunications is renovating the space for business purposes has created concern among the public as this will affect the cultural space of Book Street as well as the core heritage area in the city center.

“The expansion of business development associated with the Book Street space, the core heritage area needs to be carried out in harmony, along with the development of the Book Street, avoiding affecting this space. This not only builds the spatial image for each unit but also builds the image for the city”, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi said.

To support readers coming to the Book Street, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi suggested that the Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Company proactively approach the units to understand the licensing procedures. At the same time, Saigon Ward and the Department of Construction need to support the Book Street to complete the documents as soon as possible to re-establish the parking lot to serve the needs of readers in the near future.

LINH BAO

Source: https://nhandan.vn/thao-go-kho-khan-cho-duong-sach-thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-post916953.html