Illustrative photo: SGGP
The program 'People ask - the government answer' took place with the theme ‘Planning and managing bus stations and parking lots'. The program was organized by the Standing Committee of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications, and the Television Station of Ho Chi Minh City, under the chairmanship of Ms.Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Head of the Urban Committee under the municipal People's Council.
At the program, the guests and voters said that the network of bus stations and parking lots in the southern metropolis has not yet met the development of the city; therefore, many complicated problems such as illegally-parked cars or on-street parking have arisen.
In addition, voters also posed questions related to underground parking projects that are behind schedule or the new Mien Dong Bus Station that has been put into operation but is not yet effective.
The planning and management of bus stations and parking lots in Ho Chi Minh City are carried out in accordance with the Prime Minister's Decision 668 dated April 8, 2013, on the adjustment of the Ho Chi Minh City transport development planning to the end of 2020 and a vision after 2020.
Director of the HCMC Department of Transport Tran Quang Lam said, in the central area, car parks are currently planned with a larger area than the Decision 568, but the implementation is in the middle meanwhile just 65 percent of the port area is currently being exploited compared to the Decision 568.
Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City Truong Trung Kien said that the investment in parking stations in public lands in the form of public-private cooperation has been facing many problems in terms of regulations; for instance, the parking lot in Le Van Tam Park and the parking lot in Sepetember 23 Park.
He added that the parking location will be planned on port industrial parks’ premises. But in fact, these areas only have a very small area for parking, most of the area is for warehouses for loading and unloading activities such as Cat Lai and Phu Huu ports; thus, causing traffic jams in neighboring areas.
With inter-provincial bus stations, the current public transport connection from the city center to the bus stations is not effective, so some new bus stations such as Mien Dong Bus Station have not yet promoted their capacity as designed.
Worse, calling for investors to participate in parking lot investment has bumped into many difficulties because of inefficiency, high investment costs, difficulties in compensation, and low revenue; as a result, investors are disinterested in investment in parking lots.
Regarding small parking lots as a temporary solution, it is necessary to carry out planning adjustment procedures, because most of them are not more suitable than the plan.
Furthermore, the city will allow using a part of the yard area, space at parks and public parking places as well as encourage people to exploit vacant areas as places where cars can park in. In addition, it is necessary to encourage private businesses to use basements and empty yards, and organize small parking lots for the public.
