A station on the HCM City Metro Line No.1 in Thủ Đức city. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Diệp

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Transport is collecting opinions from relevant departments, localities and experts to complete transit-oriented development (TOD) planning.

The city is expected to be a pioneer in implementing the TOD model with railway lines at the core of the urban transport system.

The Transport Department director Trần Quang Lâm said the department will summarise and submit the opinions and comments and send them to the municipal People’s Committee by the end of the year.

TOD planning develops a public transportation system as a base for urban planning and traffic development to form population concentration points and subsequently distributed transport systems.

Under the department’s proposal, the planning will be implemented in seven steps.

Initially, it is important to identify a concentrated traffic hub to form a TOD model.

The second step is to identify the surrounding areas of railway terminals and intersections of the Ring Road No.3 section in the city, and review the land fund and plans that need to perform partial adjustments of planning while evaluating the current situation.

Implementing the partial adjustment of planning (if any) is the third step.

The fourth is to propose an independent public investment project along with carrying out compensation to revoke land and develop infrastructure and urban areas.

The fifth is to evaluate the pre-feasibility study report and propose and submit the investment policy to the municipal People Council for approval.

The next step is to organise project implementation.

The last step is to organise auctions to select investors for the projects.

The Transport Department has proposed to perform the TOD model in two periods.

The first period is to pilot the TOD model in the surrounding areas of concentrated traffic hubs comprising terminals of the Metro Line No.1 and intersections of the Ring Road No.3 section in the city, which are all identified and have clear legal status.

The city’s Department of Planning and Architecture has collaborated with the people’s committees of Thủ Đức city and districts to review and calculate statistics of the land fund surrounding the areas so it is permissible to promptly implement some pilot projects.

The second period will implement the traffic hubs of metro lines in association with the city’s urban metro line planning, including Metro Line No.2.

Currently, Metro Line No.2 has a clear legal base, and agencies have approved the locations of its terminals. — VNS