ĐÀ NẴNG — In co-operation with Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), the central city yesterday officially debuted a new public bus route as part of Đà Nẵng’s urban traffic corridor improvement project.

The bus route, which took two years of work and total investment of US$2.9 million, will help boost the city’s internal bus services by offering public car parking areas, bus stops and shuttle bus routes connecting residential quarters and public destinations.

The project will also support commuters with free bike parking and smart parking at the departure bus station as well as bus tracking apps on mobile devices.

As planned, commuters will get a one-year complementary ticket as well as free wi-fi service on the bus.

The bus routes, which use eight 50-seat buses, will operate from 5.45am to 8.45pm everyday.

General Secretary of TMF and Executive vice president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Osamu Nagata, said the project aims to help the city prevent traffic congestion in the future as well as contributing to the city’s sustainable development.

Vice chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Đặng Việt Dũng said the public bus routes would help change the habits of using personal vehicles for daily travel among local residents.

He said the route, in addition to the current 11 public ones, offers commuters more options to utilise a safe and environmentally-friendly vehicle.

On the occasion, Toyota Việt Nam donated two Toyota Coaster buses to the city as part of the project signed in 2015.

Last year, the city launched five new inner-city bus routes with 61 new 40-seat busses. They will run every 20 minutes between 5am until 9pm, he added.

The city plans to build Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and 14 regular bus routes by 2020 under the World Bank-funded sustainable development project.

The city’s population of 900,000 has far outgrown the current public bus system, which has just 48 buses travelling on five routes, meeting just 10 per cent of demand.

The city’s Transport Department estimates that residents make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 per cent of them on motorbikes.

Đà Nẵng is Việt Nam’s fourth largest city and is highly regarded by other cities for its planning, governance and infrastructure.

In 2013, the World Bank agreed an $272.1 million sustainable development project, of which $202.4 million will be funnelled into helping improve the city’s BRT network, build new roads and revamp the drainage system. — VNS