A public bus makes slow progress on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street. Offering more varied public transportation choices has been mooted as one of the ways to ease the traffic problems plaguing HCMC.

The proposal to hike registration and impose circulating fees for vehicles, is unfeasible and unfair, many officials warn.

The Ho Chi Minh City government should focus on overhauling the infrastructure system and improving its urban zoning to tackle traffic problems instead of increasing vehicle registration and imposing circulating fees, officials have said.

In a bid to clear clogged roads, the HCMC municipal administration had proposed to the Ministry of Finance that vehicle registration and parking fees were to be increased, and an annual circulation fee imposed.

The proposal has run into stiff opposition as many state officials say the city authorities have glossed over the root cause of traffic problems.

They have called for a rethink on the proposal and urged the city government to factor in other measures.

Infrastructure development first

Slapping circulating fees on vehicles is a common solution in developed countries to tackle traffic jams, considering their sophisticated infrastructure system, said Tran Du Lich, the vice head of HCMC delegation to the National Assembly.

But it would be untimely to apply that model in Vietnam at the moment, Lich said, considering that its sprawling US$1 billion subway is under construction.

It will be six years before HCMC’s first subway – which will run through districts 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc – is commissioned.

In order to increase the registration fees for vehicles, the city should upgrade its public transportation network first, Lich said.

Le Nguyen Minh Quang, a deputy of the HCMC’s People’s Council, the legislature, concurred with Lich, saying the fee hikes, if approved, would just exacerbate the burden on people.

An increasing number of motorbikes plying the streets was not the root cause for traffic gridlocks, Quang said. He instead blamed the people’s disregard for traffic regulations, poor traffic management, and the sluggish progress of transportation works.

Le Hieu Dang, Vice Chairman of the HCMC’s Fatherland Front Committee, also said increasing the registration fees and introducing circulating fees would not deter people from buying new motorbikes, considering the soaring demand for the vehicles. The city government should thus improve its infrastructure management first rather than make the residents pay, Dang said.

“If the HCMC People’s Committee put forth the proposal to the People’s Council, I would be the first one to vote against it,” Deputy Quang said.

Last December, the Ministry of Transport had proposed a hike in vehicle registration fees to between 30 and 35 percent of their value. But the proposal also sparked a strong public protest.

Better zoning, public counsel are vital

Nguyen Van Thanh, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Road Bureau, stressed the most fundamental solution to traffic woes the city should adopt was to relocate residential areas, hospitals, and schools in outlying districts instead of centralizing them in the heart of the city.

Thanh said if the plan to remove those facilities, as well as polluting enterprises and companies, out of the city center goes smoothly, traffic gridlocks would ease considerably.

He also stressed the importance of developing the subway system and metro routes in the city. Increasing public transportation choices by offering different kinds of buses, would be a good thing, he said.

Officials also felt more stringent penalties for traffic violations would be an effective measure.

Huynh Cong Hung, Deputy Head of the People’s Council’s Economy and Budget Board, also said city authorities should take the public into confidence about the fee hikes.

The people should be fully informed about how the increased registration and the circulating fees will be used in case they are used as a last resort.

Source: TN, Agencies

Update from: http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/?catid=1&newsid=42628