HÀ NỘI — The capital will award prizes worth a total of US$300,000 to design consultancy firms that come up with the best solutions to ease traffic congestion, Hà Nội’s People’s Committee said on Wednesday.

The competition on transportation planning and traffic congestion reduction in Hà Nội until 2025, with a vision to 2030, was launched on Wednesday. The first prize will be worth $200,000, while the second prize goes $100,000. There will be just one winner each.

Entries will be selected by a board of examiners based on their capabilities, experiences and credibility.

The board includes Nguyễn Đức Chung, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee who will be chairman of the board, Nguyễn Thế Hùng, vice-chairman of the committee as vice-chairman of the board, and 14 city leaders.

National and international design consultancy firms that qualify under the provisions of Vietnamese law can submit applications from January 19 to 23 for the preliminary round.

The board will shortlist five best solutions from the preliminary round to develop traffic solutions, which will be sent to the city’s transport department before 5pm on April 27.

Between April 27 and May 10, the shortlisted participants will have to explain and defend their projects. The winners are expected to be announced latest on May 25.

Apart from the two prizes, each of the remaining three participants will get financial aid of $25,000.

Vũ Văn Viện, director of the city’s transport department, said the competition aims to discover and apply the best ideas to plan traffic flow and prevent congestion so as to serve the economic development of the capital and of key northern economic zones.

The participating projects have to tackle 12 traffic issues in Hà Nội, including planning inter-regional transport systems, applying intelligent transport and proposing solutions to manage personal vehicles to reduce traffic congestion. — VNS