Hanoi is losing USD1-1.2bn a year due to traffic congestion according to the Transport And Development Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Transport.
The figure was announced by Pham Hoai Chung, director of the Transport And Development Strategy Institute, at a conference about reducing congestion and air pollution held in Hanoi on October 24. The city lost over 1 million working hours to congestion a year.
He then raised warnings over public health because of worsening air pollution problem.
Uneven population density is one of the main cause as most people want to work and live in the city’s centre. The rising number of private vehicles and slow development of local infrastructure has also been blamed. Hanoi has about 5.5 million motorbikes and nearly 500,000 cars. From 2010 to 2017, motorbike numbers grew 10%, while cars increased 8%, compared to an 0.39% increase in road surface.
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy head of the Road and Railway Traffic Police under the Hanoi Police, also said that local infrastructure was too weak as traffic at some roads exceeded capacity six to seven times.
In Vietnam, land for traffic remained at around 6-7% of the total urban area, much lower than the required 16-26% under the Law on Road Traffic or the 20-25% at developed countries. Hung said that too many apartment buildings and increasing numbers of private vehicles were putting pressure on the infrastructure and causing congestion.
Ngo Manh Tuan, deputy director of Hanoi Department of Transport, said they had built a plan to improve the infrastructure during 2010-2020 period. The city is completing the ring roads 1, 2 and 3 as well and expanding roads to the city’s centre. The department was asked to build a plan with a view to 2030 to significantly ease congestion in the capital.
The city has tightened management over public and private vehicles in 2017 and 2018 and will carry out the motorbike ban by 2030.
Quang Phong report on Dtinews
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