LookAtVietnam – Despite getting its economic act together and recovering from the downturn, HCM City continues to grapple with traffic congestion, a city legislator said.

HCM City needs to tackle chronic traffic congestion and environmental pollution.

She also listed flooding and environmental pollution as other problems that require urgent action.

They remain unresolved because the city lacked a long-term strategy, she admitted, saying it required capital, human resources, and more relevant and realistic policies.

While around US$26 billion is required to fix the traffic congestion and flooding problems, the city allocates less than $1 billion every year.

She suggested ways to resolve the traffic woes, saying the number of private vehicles should be reduced by strengthening public transport.

While waiting for the metro network to be built, the city should introduce small buses built by the Sai Gon Transportation Mechanical Corporation.

It should begin by introducing these buses on some routes before operating them on others if the trial proves successful, she said.

Aggravating the traffic problem was the lack of parking space in the city, she said.

Figures show that there are 4 million motorbikes and 400,000 automobiles, including 3,200 buses and 11,000 taxis, in HCM City. But there are only four inter-provincial bus stations, four local bus stations, and nine taxi parking lots in the city.

The Department of Transport has drawn up a list of roads where pavements will be used as temporary parking lots.

But Thao dismissed this as a temporary solution, saying that in the long run the city must pay more attention to urban planning since there were more and more high-rise buildings in the city centre that worsen the traffic situation.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News