The HCM City Department of Transport has asked the city's People’s Committee to outline plans for investment in public transport. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Transport) HCM City (VNS/VNA) –Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Transport has asked the municipal People’sCommittee to outline plans for investment in public transport in newresidential areas, including new bus lanes, in an aim to reduce trafficcongestion.
Experts said the cityshould develop a roadmap to restrict the use of personalvehicles and speed up progress of metro lines, BRT (bus rapidtransit) Line No. 1, and others.
The city said itwould give guidance to district authorities to speed up the clearanceprogress for bus station projects.
In addition, the city willissue policies to attract private investment in transportinfrastructure and improve the subsidy method to ensure effective busoperation.
The city will also reserve landfund for transport projects under public-private partnerships (PPP), andensure convenient design and access for people who use buses.
Tran Chi Trung, Director of thecity’s Public Transport Management Centre, said the bus network wouldbe adjusted to suit the travel needs of the public, and buses would haveconnections in new residential areas, schools, commercial centres,export processing zones and industrial parks.
The city will also strictlydeal with people who occupy pavements.
The city plans to applytechnology to public transport systems, including cards forpayments. The Public Transport Management Centre has worked with the ZionJSC and Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank to issue cards to payfor all types of public passenger transport instead of cash.
Recently, the City UrbanTransport Advisory Council has agreed to set up lanes exclusively for busoperation on Vo Thi Sau and Dien Bien Phu streets in District 3.
The HCM City Public TransportManagement Centre will continue to receive opinions from experts tocomplete the project and submit it to relevant authorities for permission forimplementation.
Under the project, two buslanes will be reserved for buses during morning and afternoon peakhours. Personal vehicles and motorbikes will not be allowed duringthese periods.
Le Trung Tinh, Chairman of the HCMCity Intercity Passenger Transport and Tourism Association, said that in 2003,a dedicated bus lane in District 5 was successful. The project, which was ajoint effort between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and theDepartment of Transport, had to be suspended when drainage systems were beingimplemented.
Recently, the Department ofTransport said it would open public bidding for bus routes thisyear following regulations in adecree which assigns tasks,orders and bids on public products and services using Statefunds. The decree took effect on June 1 last year.
HCM City has bus routesoperated by 12 different companies. Of the number, 99 routes are subsidised bythe State.
The city has spent around 1trillion VND (43 million USD) on annual subsidies for buses since2012. However, the number of passengers has fallen significantly, from 302million in 2012 to 194 million in 2018.
The number of passengers in thefirst nine months of 2019 saw a decrease of 13.2 percent compared to the sameperiod in 2018./.
VNA
