To curb traffic jams and air pollution, HCM City Department of Transport will propose the city authorities only allow cars to go into downtown areas based on registration numbers.

The department’s chief Tran Quang Phuong said that traffic jams in HCM City’s center are getting serious. Exhaust discharged by vehicles in the city has reached alarming levels so it is a must to restrict personal vehicles in the downtown.

According to the official, his department would propose the city authorities to curb personal vehicles in the hub based on their registration numbers. Accordingly, vehicles with even numbers will be permitted to run downtown on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while cars with uneven numbers will work on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. All vehicles are allowed to get downtown on Sunday.

Odd registration numbers are numbers that have a 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 as the last digit registration numbers that have 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 as their last digit.

Phuong said HCM City’s transport facilities are overloaded now. The city is in serious shortage of car parking. He hoped that the new measure would help solve traffic jams in the center.

The HCM City Department of Transport will also launch a campaign to call for locals to use buses to save petrol and to reduce traffic jams. Government employees must take buses at least once a week.

HCM City currently has 447,500 cars and 4.5 million motorbikes.

PV