HCM City details plan to tackle traffic congestion

Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, deputy head of the city’s Traffic Safety Committee, has admitted that the city is facing big problems related to traffic jams, especially during peak hours at the city’s entrances, around Tan Son Nhat Airport and near seaports, a total of 37 traffic congestion hotspots in all.

“A significant increase in immigration and newly-registered motorbikes and automobiles are the main reasons for the situation,” Tuong was quoted as saying in the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper last week.

Every day, the city has over 1,000 newly-registered vehicles, but land for traffic infrastructure remains unchanged, the official said at a traffic conference on February 17.

“Pavement encroachment by businesses is another reason for serious traffic jams,” he added.

Over 100 pedestrians died in 2016 because of pavement encroachment.

To cope with the situation, Tran Quang Lam, Deputy Director of the Transport Department, announced seven groups of solution with 160 missions.

“48 urgent traffic works will be built to tackle traffic congestion while fee collection for automobiles on downtown streets will be implemented,” Lam said.

In addition, the development of an automatic fee collection system will be accelerated while a digital online traffic map will be promoted.

However, Lam affirmed that the city would be able to settle 18 of the 37 current traffic congestion spots soon and those remaining would be handled in the near future.

The city’s Traffic Police Forces announced that they would increase penalties for those who have violated traffic laws.

“We will carefully study 37 serious traffic congestion hotspots and arrange for traffic policemen to manage the flow of vehicles,” Huynh Trung Phong, head of the HCM City’s Police Department’s Road and Railway Traffic Police Sub-department said.

According to Chairman of Cu Chi district People’s Committee Nguyen Huu Hoai Phu, pavement encroachment is a very complicated problem. In the district, total length of encroachment is around 600 km and relevant authorities have faced many challenges in the clearing of encroachments, even from commune authorities.

“Cu Chi District has fired one commune chairman and disciplined two commune deputy chairmen in charge of urban order,” Phu announced.

“One household went to court suing local authorities,” he added.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, asked leaders of localities and departments to increase their determination in settling traffic congestion.

“Leaders of districts and departments should be directly involved in coping with traffic jams,” he said.

At the meeting, Le Van Khoa, Deputy Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, suggested State staff should walk to work if they live less than 3 km from their offices.

He also required the Transport Department and district 1 to consider using barriers to stop vehicles from travelling on sidewalks.

“Authorities should consider the impact on disabled people,” he said.

This year, the Transport Department set a goal of 600 million people using public transport, a ratio of water leakage under 27.5 percent, 16 of 40 flooding spots fixed, 62,540 sq.m of green space added and 25 km of road and 10 bridges built.

The municipal Traffic Safety Committee will focus on building a traffic culture for young people with the goal of reducing the number of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents by 5 percent.