HANOI: Silent prayer vigils, cautiously worded protest banners and T-shirts pleading for neighborhoods to be spared — Hanoi residents are showing rare public opposition to a massive redevelopment scheme that could displace hundreds of thousands.
Authorities in Vietnam’s capital have been on a demolition blitz, knocking down thousands of homes to make way for bridges and other infrastructure projects as part of a 100-year master plan approved last month.
One 11,000-hectare area along the Red River — roughly the size of Paris — is slated to become a warren of high-end residential complexes and parks, with roughly 250,000 residents relocated.
Large-scale protests are rare in Vietnam, where the communist authorities brook little dissent.
But private grumbling has given way to tentative public opposition as residents fight to save their homes.
