Improving transport infrastructure links in southern key economic region

Ho Chi Minh City is playing the leading role in the southern key economic region. However, obstacles in transport infrastructure, including weak regional connections while mechanisms and policies have not kept pace with development speed, have partly reduced the growth rate of the city.

Ho Chi Minh City has seen relatively comprehensive investment in terms of transport infrastructure with the construction of many major routes.
Ho Chi Minh City has seen relatively comprehensive investment in terms of transport infrastructure with the construction of many major routes.

Breakthrough projects

More than 40 years have passed since the liberation of the South and national unification, Ho Chi Minh City has seen relatively comprehensive investment in terms of transport infrastructure with the construction of many major routes, which helped change the face of urban transport.

The streets bearing the mark of a modern city such as Nguyen Van Linh avenue, North-South and East-West backbone routes, Pham Van Dong Avenue, the Saigon River Tunnel, Phu My Bridge, the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal, Hanoi Highway, and the Ring Road 2, among others have not only facilitated access to suburb areas but also boosted economic development in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Van Linh Avenue, named after the late Party General Secretary, at 17.8km long and 120m wide is the largest avenue in Vietnam with 10 lanes and 10 bridges. Thu Thiem Tunnel, which has been open since November, 2011, is one of the most modern transportation works in Southeast Asia. A boat tour of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal in and around the downtown area was launched in September, 2015. The city invested hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the badly polluted canal making it a tourism destination.

Meanwhile, the 12km path along Tan Hoa-Lo Gom canal which was once plagued with murky water and rampant garbage, now has a new look and helps to connect Districts 6 and 11, Tan Binh and Tan Phu districts.

In addition, a 14km road starting from the Tan Son Nhat airport to the National Highway 1 and running through Tan Binh, Go Vap, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc districts helped to connect the city centre with urban areas and neighbouring provinces. The US$340 million project also helped to reduce traffic on severely congested roads like Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Dinh Bo Linh, and Bach Dang.

According to architect and doctor Ngo Viet Nam Son, an expert in urban planning, Ho Chi Minh City has focused on investing in avenues, highways and ring roads including Vo Van Kiet-Mai Chi Tho Avenue, Nguyen Van Linh Avenue, and Pham Van Dong Avenue, adding that the city was making the best use of private sector funds to improve the infrastructure system.

According to many experts, besides the city’s budget, Ho Chi Minh City has effectively mobilised funds from the private business sector and many enterprises invested in the form of PPP, BOT, BTO, BT. Besides funds in the form of BOT and BT, Ho Chi Minh City allowed investors to give advance capital to avoid a budget deficit, which often slows down the progress of the project.

However, though the road system of Ho Chi Minh City has been significantly improved, traffic congestion remains a problem, causing difficulties for the operation of the businesses and activities of the people, Son said.

Director of the municipal Department of Transport Bui Xuan Cuong frankly admitted that the road system of the city is still simple and has not fully met the speed of urbanisation of the city, while there is still a lack of transport facilities connecting the city centre with these urban areas.

Ho Chi Minh City had 4,869 roads with widths of at least 5 metres as of the end of 2015. They have a total length of more than 4,000km and a combined area of 76.69 million square metres. As a result, the land area for transport accounts for only 8.2% of the area for constructing urban facilities, far below the 24-26% target set by the Government. This is the main cause of the slow development in some urban projects.

Expanding regional connectivity

Since the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong highway connecting the City and the Mekong Delta province of Long An was put into operation, the travel time between the city and the western provinces has significantly shortened, helping increase capacity transport and cargo traffic in the region. It was the first in Vietnam to be controlled by the Intelligent Transport System. The system includes a smart control and management centre located in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Chanh district and traffic monitoring devices installed along the highway.

In late 2015, the Ministry of Transport in co-ordination with the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee invested nearly US$72 million for the construction of a new 2.7 kilometre motorway designed to connect Ho Chi Minh City’s Vo Van Kiet Avenue to Trung Luong Expressway, a major route to the south-western provinces.

Despite significant investments to expand the roads, traffic congestion in some districts has not been solved entirely, causing problems for both drivers and traffic management officials.

According to Assoc. Prof. Pham Xuan Mai from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology at a recent meeting on measures to reduce traffic congestion, traffic congestion costs Ho Chi Minh City more than VND18.3 trillion (US$820.4 million) every year and is hampering local economic growth.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong said traffic has got worse in HCM City due to poor construction and land-use planning, causing transport infrastructure to fail to meet travel demand.

There haven’t been effective solutions to deal with the surge in the number of personal vehicles, he added. Also, bus routes aren’t large enough to serve as a main means of transport.

The city is pushing forward with upgrading and expanding arterial roads, and building elevated highways and parking lots. It is also accelerating the progress of two metro lines and one bus rapid transit project, along with the construction of new bus terminals in outlying areas.

Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Dinh La Thang has recently directed the city Department of Transport to settle problems and speeding up transport projects, especially at important gateways and traffic hubs in order to meet the development need of the city.

He also asked for more active response to climate change and sea level rise. To increase the connectivity with other cities and provinces in the region, the city also needs to fully exploit the current capacity of traffic infrastructure, and effectively invest in key transport projects.

The Secretary also proposed the Ministry of Transport support Ho Chi Minh City in actively building plans and promoting public-private partnership (PPP) investment to create a breakthrough in developing transport infrastructure, solving problems related to traffic congestion to improve the city's quality of growth and strengthen regional economic integration.