The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport and the Public Passenger Management and Operation Center will open bus priority routes, which is among measures to improve bus service as its output has been reducing in recent years, said the center’s director Dau An Phuc.
Because most roads in the city are small, the above measure will be implemented step by step to learn from experience before being applied in more routes said the department.
This year, the department and the center will consider opening a priority route along Dien Bien Phu-Hanoi Highway, where many buses have daily plied between center areas and the university village in Thu Duc district, Suoi Tien tourist site and Saigon Hi-Tech Park.
Besides they will give requirements forcing transport firms to improve their service quality unless resigning their routes to better service providers.
On the other side, they will facilitate businesses’ plan to replace 500 out of 1,300 old buses emitting black smoke.
Many of new buses will use compressed natural gas (CNG). The center will encourage businesses to give priority to replacement of buses running through crowded residential areas.
The remaining buses will have to comply with exhaust fume standards to limit environmental pollution.
According to a city’s project to renew 1,680 downgraded buses including the above 500 ones, the remaining 800 buses will be carried out by 2017.
Saigon Transportation Mechanical Corporation (SAMCO) has prepared for enough production of new buses for the project as per instruction by the city, of these 300 ones will run on CNG, said Samco director Tran Quoc Toan.
The center will open training courses to improve service quality to bus drivers and staff, separate ticket sales from fare collection and control, aiming to make bus transport more transparent and prompt businesses to focus on their service instead of ticket sales.
In related news, the Department of Transport has said it will work with district people’s committees to speed up site clearance for many key traffic projects.
They include construction of an intersection in front of the main entrance of Vietnam National University in Thu Duc, Luong Dinh Cua street, Kenh Lo bridge and enlargement of National Highway 1A from Binh Chanh district to Long An province.
The department will cooperate with related agencies to hasten the progress of My Thuy intersection, Tan Son Nhat-BinhLoi outer belt road and urban railway projects.
In addition, it will work with agencies under the Ministry of Transport to implement projects under the city’s traffic development plan including Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway, National Road 50 upgrading project and outer belt road no. 3 broadening in Nhon Trach-Tan Van stretch.
Work will also step up on projects under BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) and BT (Build-Transfer) form such as Hanoi Highway, Binh Trieu 2 bridge, Binh Tien bridge, Nguyen Van Linh-Nguyen Huu Tho and stretches in outer belt road no.2
