A section of Belt Road No.3 in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) Nguyen Phi Thuong, director of the municipal Transport Department, stated thatthe city would complete and open the elevated section of the Nhon-Hanoi Stationurban railway line to meet the transportation needs of city residents andimprove the synchronous connectivity between various forms of publictransportation.
The city will also review and adjust the master plan of the transport sector tominimise traffic congestion, he said.
He said that increasing the connection between urban areas and transportinfrastructure is also one of the targets to minimise traffic congestion in thecity this year.
Traffic expert Nguyen Xuan Thuy said that to reduce congestion, the city mustshow a strong determination to build a transport infrastructure systemconnecting the inter-region and within the region.
He said that Belt Road No 4 and Belt Road No 5 are the major projects that needto be strongly invested in.
He added that the city has to invest comprehensively in finance, mechanisms,policies and people to develop large-scale transport infrastructure.
It is necessary to have a more-drastic direction for the city’s Party Committeeand the People's Committee to implement the city’s major transport projects.
If not, many projects will still be delayed due to problems with mechanisms orland clearance, he said.
Traffic situation
Hanoi has faced traffic congestion for many years because the transportinfrastructure development has not kept pace with urbanisation, populationgrowth, and the increase of personal vehicles.
Data shows that the city has about 8.4 million people and more than 7.6 millionvehicles.
The city has about 43 hospitals, around 2,500 schools (from preschools touniversities), and 56,202 agencies and organisations. Many of them are locateddeep in the inner city, which is believed to be one of the main causes of citytraffic congestion and infrastructure overload.
In the meantime, the capacity of public transport services only meets 30% oftravel demand.
Most people still keep the habit of travelling by personal vehicles, making thepressure on the city’s infrastructure system increasingly heavy.
Nguyen Tuyen, head of the Transport Management Office under the transportdepartment, said the city faces many difficulties in developing publictransport due to densely-populated urban areas, the high number of personalvehicles and narrow roads.
Traffic experts said that the public transport network of the city fails toattract the majority of people because it is difficult to access, he said./.
VNA
