By 2020 HCM City will add three belt roads, seven express highways, two main urban boulevards, and four sky-roads with 25 tunnels and bridges, that is the information released at the ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the city Transport Department and the ceremony receiving second class Labor Medal yesterday.
Speaking at this event, its director Tran Quang Phuong said: HCM city agencies also hoped to complete six underground and three tramway routes and monorail system by then, 25 big bridges over the rivers Sai Gon, Dong Nai, Nha Be, Long Tau…..Developing public transport, especially urban railway, should be a top priority. The city will build a system of buses, develop 24 bus corridors, upgrade bus stations in the centre of the city ( Eastern bus station, western bus station, Cho lon bus station…) into transit bus stations… Public transport had served 544 million passengers last year, 10 times the 2002 figure, according to the document. However, by the end of last year, the City also had around 4.5 million motorbikes and 445,000 automobiles, while another million motorbikes and 60,000 cars came from neighbouring provinces every day.
The Transport Department Director also informed that all existing ports will be moved out of the downtown area and new one will be built. By the year 2020, the city will raise the water transport capacity to around 200 million tones..
Attention would be paid to parks and green spaces, with new 46 parks measuring 716 hectares planned to be built. The average green space per resident would be 10 – 12 square metres.
“But to achieve such ambitious goals, implementation of transport works should be accelerated and existing transport infrastructure should be exploited more efficiently. Diversifying capital sources for transport infrastructure and improving efficiency of capital are vital", city Chairman Le Hoang Quan said.
