Ho Chi Minh City is facing a serious of shortage of parking spots. Accordingly, the city’s Department of Transportation is prioritizing the expansion of available parking to the top of its list of infrastructure projects; the obstacles blocking this goal will be discussed at a conference on June 24.
A car parks on Bui Thi Xuan street, District 1. (Photo:SGGP)
The city People’s Committee has asked relevant agencies to complete necessary jobs in order to make the construction of underground parking spots in the downtown area a priority.
Thanh Hiep Phat, a private company, started construction on a parking lot with a capacity of 500 cars, in Tan Kien commune, Binh Chanh District back in 2004, under a city policy encouraging companies to invest in and building parking structures. The city also pledged to support the project by paying the interest of the necessary loan, worth VND80 billion (US$4.2 million).
However, the parking structure opened 2007 and the company has not yet received the financial support it was promised. The financial aid will be reconsidered, said Tran Ngoc Van, deputy director of the company.
Van said the bank has recently sent a notice asking the company pay interest on its loan as soon as possible.
The tardy support has forced the company into a tough spot. Potentially, the bank could confiscate the parking lot.
According to Le Trung Tinh, head of the Transport and Industry Management, the management board submitted requests for financial aid to the city People’s Committee, estimated at around VND50 billion ($2.6 million).
A similar situation occurred with the underground parking lot at Le Van Tam Park. The parking lot’s investors announced the start of construction many times; however, construction was delayed because of uncompleted legal documents.
Phung Dang Hai, General Director of the HCM City’s Alliance of Transport Cooperatives, said building parking lots is difficult as is their maintenance. The Alliance of Transport Cooperatives has 1,000 buses with a parking lot of 2,000 square meters given by state, however, a plan from local authorities would use the land to build an apartment building, Hai said.
So when will there be enough parking spots?
Under city’s transport plan through 2025, the city needs around 1,141 hectares of land to accommodate the ever-increasing number of cars. However, the city has reached only one-tenth of the demand for parking. Therefore, most vehicles including cars have to park on streets and sidewalks.
Bui Xuan Cuong, Deputy Director of the city’s Transport Department, said many local authorities are not passionate about investing in building new parking lots because they think that they will add to traffic density and lead to social evils.
In addition, the departments also found out some parking lots are being used for other purposes or have been relocated.
The city People’s Committee asked local authorities to reconsider the issues and disallow the elimination of parking lots.
When it comes to the parking situation in HCMC, there are no easy answers.
