HCM City has recently been suffering from constant traffic jams even during non-peak hours. — Photo kienthuc.net

HCM CITY – HCM City has recently been suffering from constant traffic jams even during non-peak hours.

This has been happening despite the Department of Transport’s series of measures to ease traffic.

Major streets running from the outskirts to downtown like Trường Chinh, Cộng Hòa, Xô Viết Nghệ Tĩnh, those around large markets like An Đông, Tân Bình, Bình Tây, and the downtown area have been the worst affected.

“This is the time to prepare for Tết (the Lunar New Year) and many dealers from Mekong Delta provinces are coming to the wholesale markets like An Đông, Tân Bình and Bình Tây to buy goods,” a transport department employee explained.

The constant traffic jams are also blamed on trucks being banned on many roads around Tân Sơn Nhất airport, the mushrooming of transport and environmental works around the city, and the encroachment of pavements and roads by small businesses.

“The city’s master plan is poor with a very low ratio of space for transport in comparison with other modern cities in the world,” Dr. Nguyễn Hữu Nguyên of the HCM City Social Society and Humanity University’s National Strategy and Policy Research Institute was quoted as saying by Người Lao Động (The Labourer) newspaper.

“The downtown area with its decrepit infrastructure is suffering because of a sharp increase in population due to the mushrooming of high-rise buildings, and traffic congestion is inevitable.”

He called for banning trucks in all the most congested places.

“The transport department should study and prohibit all automobiles on certain roads during specific hours.

“The department should work with … the traffic police and local authorities to mitigate the situation.” — VNS