House address chaos in Hà Nội will be completely solved this year, according to a decision from municipal authorities. — Photo zing.vn

HÀ NỘI — House address chaos in Hà Nội will be completely solved this year, according to a decision from municipal authorities.

Under the decision, the construction department will instruct districts and wards to review the situation and complete house addressing by the end of this year.

Confusion about street names and house numbers in newly-expanded areas has added to the chaos of streets in Hà Nội, making it difficult for people to find addresses.

According to statistics from the Hà Nội Construction Department, house number chaos has occurred in districts with newly-built roads.

This was an urgent problem that came with rapid urbanisation, said the department.

The problem is clear to see on on Xã Đàn, Vũ Phạm Hàm, Lê Văn Lương or Đền Lừ streets as there are multiple addresses with the same number and the number often follow no logical order.

For example, in a small lane in Mỹ Quang Pagoda of Đống Đa District’s Khâm Thiên Street, there are 20 houses with the same address.

Normally, houses located on the same road are given odd or even numbers, but in Hà Nội, house numbers don’t follow any order, the department said.

Some houses have two addresses or addresses were numbered randomly because homeowners numbered their houses by themselves, said the department.

The problem caused daily difficulties for residents and local government.

Phan Thị La, a resident in Yên Lãng Street of Đống Đa District, told the Kinh Tế & Đô Thị (Economic & Urban Affairs) Newspaper that: “My house is at No.118. there is another No. 118. This has caused me great inconvenience”.

“Everyday, I have to direct hundreds of people looking for the other No.118”, La said.

When she complained to the local authorities, she was told that the two houses have the same address but are located in different wards, one in Láng Hạ and the other in Thịnh Quang.

Phạm Thanh Long, a delivery driver who was born in Hà Nội, said he making deliveries to newly-built roads in the city was confusing.

“The house numbers on new roads are very random. Sometimes No.35 is next to No.68”, he told the Việt Nam News.

Real estate agencies are also suffering from the confusion, especially when making contracts for the sale or rental of properties.

The owner of a real estate business on Vũ  Phạm Hàm Street said, "With new street addresses, I take my time to guide my customers to them. It’s very confusing," she said.

Directions from locals don’t always help either, as when walkers ask locals about new addresses they often use the old name.

In addition, some streets in newly-expanded areas have yet to be named officially.

 “Even the people living in the areas don’t know how the house addresses are numbered. Delivering to right address is often a struggle for me”, Long said.

Part of the problem can be blamed on superstition. Some people whose houses are also a shop choose ‘lucky’ numbers for business. So, they use two address plates on their houses, the actual number and the ‘lucky’ number.

In some streets, residents have not co-operated with local authorities in numbering the house addresses.

The case of Quỳnh Mai Ward in Hai Ba Trưng District is an example.

Choosing new addresses for about 40 houses in Quỳnh Lôi Street, a newly-built street in an old residential quarter, has not been completed for more than 2 years.

The ward’s vice chairman, Nguyễn Văn Bình said that local residents did not want to shift to the new addresses because they were afraid the new addresses would affect their personal documents such as residential registration, IDs and land use certificates.

Besides the above mentioned reasons, the house address chaos was due to shortcomings in urban management.

Municipal authorities, in 2014, issued a decision on house addresses which determined the responsibilities of the construction and finance departments and People’s committees in districts and wards.

According to the city Construction Department, houses on newly-opened roads would be numbered after the roads were named.

However, the new roads were only named two years after completion. In the meantime, people numbered their houses by themselves which  lead to a mess.

Solution

To fix the mess in house addresses, municipal authorities assigned the Construction Department to instruct districts and wards to review the situation and complete house addressing by the end of this year.

The department has asked the 15 wards, districts and townships, which have 32 newly-built and expanded roads this year, to complete house addressing within six months of the roads being finished.

Lê Văn Dục, the department’s deputy head said that districts and wards needed plans for naming new roads and numbering houses annually to keep up with rapid urbanisation.

Ha Noi’s People Committee also asked the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports to establish scientific projects, including naming streets with clear criteria for the residents and researchers to contribute ideas. — VNS