Ho Chi Minh City to build six bus rapid transit lines

Nhan Dan Online/VNA - Ho Chi Minh City will consider the building of six bus rapid transit (BRT) lines as an effort to help ease traffic congestion, flooding and environmental pollution.

Ho Chi Minh City to build six bus rapid transit lines

The information was revealed by Luong Minh Phuc, head of the city’s Urban Civil Works Construction Investment Management Authority (UCCI), at a seminar on Ho Chi Minh City’s green transport projects co-hosted by the agency and the World Bank on September 9.

The first line, linking Vo Van Kiet Avenue to Mai Chi Tho Road, will have a total length of 23.5 kilometres and will be built at an estimated cost of over VND3.2 trillion (US$152 million).

It will provide public transportation by rapid busses, helping to improve the locality’s traffic capacity and shorten the travel time between the west and the east of the city, he said.

At present, a feasibility study for the first BRT line has been completed and is waiting for the WB’s verification, he added.

Once put into operation in 2018, experts said the rapid buses can transport up to 31,600 passengers per day with the figure set to increase to 86,250 by 2020.

According to Colin Brader, chief researcher of Ho Chi Minh City’s BRT project, this kind of bus will encourage citizens to use public transportation, thus reducing the number of private vehicles.