Bus No.104 on Cộng Hoà Street, HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

HCM CITY— HCM City has added 12 new bus routes comprising four minibus, ‘high-quality’ inner city and inter-provincial services each.

The minibuses will run 14-19.5km on narrow streets to improve last-mile connectivity to public transport.

They include between Ấp 5 Phong Phú Residential Area in Bình Chánh District and District 7, T30 Residential Area in Bình Chánh and the University of Finance and Marketing in District 7 and the Bình An Waterbus Station and Liên Phường Street in Thủ Đức City and Sài Gòn Bus Station in District 1.

The high-quality services, 11-22km long, will be along the Võ Văn Kiệt - Mai Chí Thọ Highway corridor.

Three of the four inter-provincial routes will be between the Tân Phú Bus Station and Tây Ninh, Tiền Giang and Đồng Nai provinces.

The other will run from the An Sương Bus Station to Biên Hoà City in Đồng Nai Province.

These routes are not subsidised.

According to the city Department of Transport, the aim is to make public transportation meet 15 per cent of public travel demand by 2025 and 25 per cent by 2030.

As many as 50-60 new routes would be started by 2025, increasing to around 75 by 2030, and the number of buses would double in the next 10 years, it said.

The city now has 128 routes, including 91 subsidised ones, and nearly 2,100 buses.

Every year it provides subsidies of around VNĐ1 trillion ($43 million) to bus companies. VNS