HCM City’s Traffic Safety Committee and Transport Department has said it plans a series of strong measures in order to reduce traffic jams. — Photo thanhnien.vn

HCM City — HCM City’s Traffic Safety Committee and Transport Department has said it plans a series of strong measures in order to reduce traffic jams.

Nguyễn Ngọc Tường, deputy head of the city’s Traffic Safety Committee, has admitted that the city is facing big problems related to traffic jams, especially during peak hours at the city’s entrances, around Tân Sơn Nhất Airport and near seaports, a total of 37 traffic congestion hotspots in all.

“A significant increase in immigration and newly-registered motorbikes and automobiles are the main reasons for the situation,” Tường was quoted as saying in the Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper last week.

Every day, the city has over 1,000 newly-registered vehicles, but land for traffic infrastructure remains unchanged, the official said at a traffic conference on Friday.

“Pavement encroachment by businesses is another reason for serious traffic jams,” he added.

Over 100 pedestrians died in 2016 because of pavement encroachment.

To cope with the situation, Trần Quang Lâm, deputy director of the Transport Department announced seven groups of solution with 160 missions.

“48 urgent traffic works will be built to tackle traffic congestion while fee collection for automobiles on downtown streets will be implemented,” Lâm said.

In addition, the development of an automatic fee collection system will be accelerated while a digital online traffic map will be promoted.

However, Lâm confirmed that the city would be able to settle 18 of the 37 current traffic congestion spots soon and those remaining would be handled in the near future.

The city’s Traffic Police Forces announced that they would increase penalties for those who have violated traffic laws.

“We will carefully study 37 serious traffic congestion hotspots and arrange for traffic policemen to manage the flow of vehicles,” Huỳnh Trung Phong, head of the HCM City’s Police Department’s Road and Railway Traffic Police Sub-department said.

According to the chairman of Củ Chi district People’s Committee Nguyễn Hữu Hoài Phú, pavement encroachment is a very complicated problem. In the district, total length of encroachment is around 600 km and relevant authorities have faced many challenges in the clearing of encroachments, even from commune authorities.

“Củ Chi District has fired one commune chairman and disciplined two commune deputy chairmen in charge of urban order,” Phú announced.

“One household went to court suing local authorities,” he added.

Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the city People’s Committee, asked leaders of localities and departments to increase their determination in settling traffic congestion.

“Leaders of districts and departments should be directly involved in coping with traffic jams,” he said.

At the meeting, Lê Văn Khoa, deputy chairman of the city People’s Committee, suggested State staff should walk to work if they live less than 3 km from their offices.

He also required the Transport Department and district 1 to consider using barriers to stop vehicles from travelling on sidewalks.

“Authorities should consider the impact on disabled people,” he said.

This year, the Transport Department set a goal of 600 million people using public transport, a ratio of water leakage under 27.5 per cent, 16 of 40 flooding spots fixed, 62,540 sq.m of green space added and 25 km of road and 10 bridges built.

The municipal Traffic Safety Committee will focus on building a traffic culture for young people with the goal of reducing the number of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents by 5 percent. — VNS