VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Minister of Transport Le Manh Hung spoke to Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) about the capital’s chronic congestion.

Traffic jams remain a big problem in many spots in the city. What are the proposed solutions for this?

The best solution is to develop the public transportation network with buses and sky trains. I think building sky trains is the best way to meet Ha Noi’s needs. We are currently sponsoring two sky train routes: from Cat Linh to Ha Dong and from Ngoc Hoi to Yen Vien.

Other public transport projects are being carried out under the Build Operation and Transfer (BOT) model of project financing, which means a private firm is allowed to finance, construct and operate a project which benefits the public.

What are the obstacles facing the sky train projects? When will the projects be completed?

Under the design, the 13-km Cat Linh-Ha Dong sky train route will cost VND8.8trillion (US$488.8million). We plan to finish it by 2014, however, we are dealing now with a lot of difficulties in site clearance.

For the 15-km route from Giap Bat to Gia Lam, the first phase of the second project linking Ngoc Hoi to Yen Vien, we are also faced with needing to remove and compensate people for the land planned for the project. We estimate that up to VND3 trillion($166.6million) will be necessary for the compensation and resettlement. We will try to finish that task before 2012 to construct the route in time. We will try to finish the projects as soon as possible.

Enterprises are also taking part in building a railroad under BOT. What do you think about that?

We support such an investment. We encourage the work of qualified enterprises with good capacity, investment and modern technology.

However, we request that all railways must be connected to make a good railroad network. This month, our ministry signed with a South Korean contractor for the railway route from Nam Thang Long- Lang Hoa Lac, which is a key transport route. This $1.5 billion project should be finished by 2017.

It will take at least 5 to 10 years for the projects you mentioned to be finished. What is your solution for the current traffic jams in the city?

We need to study the points of where traffic is heaviest with the most jams; based on these studies we will expand the roads and improve the traffic intersection points. We should keep re-routing traffic and collecting fees at some routes with heavy traffic.

A solution cannot work overnight, but it is necessary over the long term to improve the transport infrastructure, limit the increasing number of vehicles and most importantly, making people more aware of rules when driving.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

 

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