Soaring towers, shuttling vehicles, newly-built temporary houses--all these will impress the visitors deeply when they come to the New District in March of Spring.
On March 21 last year, Yichang Municipal government formally established the New District Construction Promotion Office. It is learned from Yichang the Office that since last October, after nearly six months of preliminary work, Yichang New District construction has being carried out efficiently, yielding 102 started projects with total investment of 45.377 billion yuan under the guidance of new mechanisms, new concept, and new ideas.
With the initiation of road network construction, preferentially established public buildings, the ideal of constructing city ecologically and the starting of resettlement housing building etc., a new attractive city is quietly rising up in Three Gorges Areas beside the Yangtze River.
Be bold in reforming and lead the innovation of promotion mechanism
As the Chinese saying goes “spring usually comes much earlier for tireless tillers”. On February 13, Yichang Taohualing Hotel was filled with fresh breath of early spring.
It was in this hotel that the Yichang New District was convening its Projects Promotion Meeting, which attracted 20 national entrepreneurs here for opportunities. Gao Wancai, Deputy Director of Marketing Development Department of China Gezhouba Group Corporation said, "Yichang New District has launched \'Three Initiatives\' and cooperative enterprises like us will be more motivated." The "Three Initiatives" are the project management initiatives of "long sections, big enterprises, and all-round contract". On the basis of municipal government arrangements, the New District Promotion Office proposed a new measure to accelerate the construction of infrastructure, public buildings, resettlement housing, and landscape projects in Yichang New District.
Previously, Yichang New District Promotion Office, municipal departments and some major entrepreneurs’ delegation have visited other places for investigation. When they came back, after sufficient verification, they promoted a new "Three Initiatives" by bringing in overseas experience and combining it with the actual project in Yichang.
Yichang New District is a reform pilot area. Under the mechanism of "leading group plus promotion office", the Yichang New District Promotion Office pushed forward the project bravely and carried out the reform and innovations with endless vitality. They put forward a series of new ideas of "Four Firsts, Five Willing, Six Best, Ecological Characteristics etc." to guide the innovation for promotion mechanism. At the first office meeting of Yichang New District Construction, Huang Chuping, the Standing Committee member of CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, Secretary of CPC Yichang Municipal Committee stressed, "We should concentrate manpower, material, financial resources and energy in accordance with the requirements of \'Four First-Class\', and vigorously promote the construction of Yichang New District in light of the principles of putting main road network first, of putting large public buildings construction first, of putting expropriation and resettlement first, and of putting ecological environment first."
Reporters learned that the Yichang New District Office has launched 65 projects of resettlement housing and municipal infrastructure, built 27 roads and bridges which included Miaozui Yangtze River Bridge, Huaxi Road and etc, and started constructing four major parks of Moji Mountain Park, Qiuyutai Park, Chengdong Park and Dongshan Park. These "First" have built a strong foundation for the rise of big city, and set the stage of construction for urban expansion.
In practice, the Yichang New District Promotion Office concluded the work ideas of "Project First, Environmental First, and Speed First", established the Front Working Mechanism, and implemented the measure of "Front-line Working Acts." Meanwhile, they have established Tracking Services Mechanism and Supervision and Evaluation Mechanism, implemented the methods of "Project Management, Project Operation and the Project Pushing by responsible individuals.
The Office paid special attention to optimizing the project plans of the construction projects. Zhou Qing, Secretary of Xiling District Committee of the CPC and Deputy Director of Yichang New District Promotion Office, pointed out that the New East Station Area was an example which was constructed under the guidance of ecological construction concept after successful verification of 50 years’ water level elevation in Bolin River, reasonable resolution of earthwork balance. This has not only reduced the earth backfill amount of several million cubic meters, saved tens of millions money, but also left huge space for the development of surrounding ecological environment.
Being able to tackle tough issues and accelerate the construction
Where does the money come from? Where can we get the land? Where will the people go...? Faced with a series of difficulties, Yichang New District Promotion Office and the Leading Group Unit jointly tackled tough issues by fully learning the advanced experience at home and abroad.
From the junction between Jinlong Road and Heyi Road in New East Ecological Area, visitors can find newly-constructed buildings in the being-constructed community supported by Jiu-an-cheng Resettlement Housing Projects with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan and 3,079 resettlement houses to be built.
Under the concept of "Five Willings", the Office overcame the resettlement problem and constructed large-scale resettlement housing in such a treasure land.
Mao Chuanqiang, the Standing Committee member of CPC Yichang City Committee, Deputy mayor, Director of Yichang New District Promotion Office, said that the construction is for the benefit of people, and we must be willing to use the land of high quality, the land of good basic conditions, the land with sound matching facilities, the land demanding first time imposition, and the land under the urban comprehensive planning, thus the people can fully enjoy the fruits of reform, opening-up and New District construction.
There are 38,000 prefabricated houses, according to this reporter, with 3,830,000 square meters in total which have been built or are under building at the moment. It’s the principle of “five welling to”, the action of accelerating the construction of prefabricated houses, the effort of fulfilling the prospect of “houses waiting for selling” that have gained the support and understanding from the masses. Last year, the government has accomplished the expropriation of 3,122 households whose houses built on public domain, the expropriation of collective land for 25,359 mu and completed the demolishing of 3,496 houses and illegal constructions covering 171,895 square meters, which are solid guarantees for the city to carry out the major projects smoothly.
The process of land requisition and demolishing, especially the expropriation of collective land and the relocation work are the first barrier lying in front of the magnificent development and construction of Yichang New District. The promotion office of Yichang New District, together with other district governments and departments directly under city government, have investigated and made careful statistical analysis on the basic information about the collective land feasible for all-around contract mode in New District, including the categories of the land, quantity of houses, and the legal area of the average level for each district. At the same time, they have organized other related departments to measure and calculate out the comprehensive all in prices for each district according to the expropriation and compensation policies at present. Ultimately, they formed an “All-around Contract Mode” for land expropriation compensation with district as the basic unit, the available collective land area in New District as the cardinal number, the comprehensive accounting prices of each district as the standard. When contracting activity took place between the city and district, it will be accounted with the multiplication of comprehensive accounting prices and the land amount expropriated. When it happened between district and households, the households will be compensated according to the policies. Besides, they have newly drafted the Notice of Practicing and Evaluating of the Land Expropriation and Relocation Work which has further defined the responsibilities of the functional departments, the district governments and municipal government, coordinated the fund procurement and the overall process of the collective land expropriation, aroused the enthusiasm of the construction of New District and played an positive role in accelerating the land expropriation in New District. At present, the promotion office of New District has supervised and coordinated the government of Wujiagang District, Xiling Distrcit, Dianjun Distrcti , Yiling District to sign 34 the work contracted to departments mode agreements with the Municipal ChengTou, involving 16,249.79 acres land expropriation and 5.03 billion RMB subsistence allowance.
The government of Wujia district has invented a new way, according to laws and regulations, of expropriation which has been carried out with compassion including “resettlements come first, party members and cadres move first, illegal buildings will be controlled and demolished at first”. For instance, the vegetable greenhouses of gongyi village once were faced with the fate of expropriation for its location on the land of Yichang New District construction. In order to reduce the peasants’ loss, the government of Wujia town paid professional companies more than 30,000 RMB for their assistant of demolishing of steel pipes and frame members for the peasants and searching for buyers of them. It only took three days to check and measure the 66o mu yang crops from 235 households, make sure the peasants sign the contracts and young crops rooted out.
Dianjun District has invented the new way of signing the settlement compensation agreements intensively. During the land expropriation of Dianjun Avenue, Dianjun District organized 5 concentrated countersign ceremonies, on which 320 households signed the agreements at the scene, guaranteeing a signing rate more than 60%. The transparent expropriation sat the masses’ at rest.
The construction of New District is speeding up through overcoming difficulties.
The government is willing to improve people’s livelihood, built cooperatively and share the benefits of an ecological new city with people.
The picturesque scenery is the everlasting impression of Yichang, while suitability for living, traveling and business is the eternal keynote of Yichang.
On March 21, the reporter on the Wulong Avenue, the first ecological avenue of Yichang, saw rows of famous and precious trees like Osmanthus trees and camphor trees planted on both sides of the roads greening in the spring breeze. In the middle of the avenue is the widest greenbelt with the width of 28 meters at maximum 10meters at average.
The process of planning, constructing, and managing of Yichang New District has been ecologically carried out in each step, trying to form the intensive and efficient production area, livable and appropriate living area and picturesque ecological area. “We will build Yichang New District as a city where one can enjoy the views of mountains and waters and where one can dispel his homesickness.” After surveying at the construction scene many times, Mao Chuanqiang made the request that ecological civilization construction should be stressed to build ecological road networks and energy-saving architectures, reflecting the ups-and-downs architectural style of the city, avoiding the mountains being blindly excavated because it will affect the ecological feature of the mountains, waters and vegetation, and the new construction situation of harmonious development of people and nature.
To figure out present situation is the premises of improving people’s livelihood. In order to accomplish the construction projects of this year, the promotion office of Yichang New District proposed the principle of “six most” to build New District, which are, the most difficult problem is expropriation, the ecological idea is the most outstanding character, the people’s livelihood is the most pressing task, deepening the reform is the most appropriate way, the coordination between old and new areas is the most important balance, and financing is the most powerful guarantee.
Under the guidance of “six most”, the city has planed 182 construction projects with a total investment of 124.6 billion RMB and 41.8 billion RMB has been invested(to be invested).
On February 25, the anticipated BRT project on Dongshan Avenue has officially been initiated. As the construction of Xiazhou Avenue and Miaozui Yangtze River Briadge is speeding up, the main road networks of three vertical roads and three horizontal roads connecting New District and the old city area are showing up, the outline of the intermediate ring road linking up the north and south regions of the Yangtze River has been basically formed. The reporters have been informed that a large series of modification works of the old city areas and shanty towns are ready to start.
The above-mentioned enthusiastic constructions are breeding a new ecological city featured with jointly building and sharing of its fruits among people.