HÀ NỘI — Vehicle drivers in the country, especially in big cities, are expected to benefit in coming years from a smart transport system like those in developed countries.

That is because the Ministry of Transport has recently directed relevant agencies to speed up progress on building the digital traffic map system in the country.

The map is designed to improve the management capability of authorised agencies as well as provide useful information for road users.

To speed up the progress, the relevant agencies will fix shortcomings of pilot programmes to build its digital traffic map system, the Hà Nội Mới ( New Hà Nội) newspaper reported.

A representative of the ministry’s Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam said that in 2013, the agency worked with two domestic service providers to build a system to connect data from itinerary monitoring devices installed in 650,000 vehicles of transport firms; integrated with the system of road signs and the weighbridge system in the country.

However, there were inconsistencies between the two providers, so the programme was less effective than expected, he said.

Two years later, the Việt Nam Inland Waterway Administration also started its plan to build its digital waterway traffic map. Due to lack of financial resources, the administration had built the map based on the free Google maps. And one major shortcoming was that it could not extract data from the administration map.

Phạm Duy Ninh, director of the ministry’s Information and Technology Centre said the ministry’s policies of building the digital traffic map were now combining funds from the State and investment from private sectors. This would help to fix the situation, he said.

Hà Nội digitalises its traffic map

The capital administration has already scheduled to turn Hà Nội into a smart city by 2020. One of the prioritized parts of the plan was to set up the city’s digital traffic map.

To do that, in May, the Hà Nội People’s Committee gave the green light for the FPT Corporation’s project on building an intelligent transportation system (ITS) for the city.

ITS  is a combination of advanced technology and transport infrastructure to manage and operate the transportation system.

It includes a control centre, traffic monitoring systems, traffic information, as well as security, safety, and emergency management systems.

Also this month, a pilot programme that used software and automation technology to manage public parking zones was run on two streets, Lý Thường Kiệt and Trần Hưng Đạo in Hoàn Kiếm District.

The programme, developed and implemented by the Hà Nội Car Park Exploitation Company, involves the digital mapping of car parking areas, the use of management software, and the installation of cameras to record vehicle registration plates in parking zones.

All information relating to car parks will be available online, and car owners will be able to find and book parking spaces in advance on devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The smart technology behind the system will also make it possible for vehicle owners to park their cars without help from parking staff.

Three weeks ago, the Hà Nội Transport Department and the Hà Nội Transport Corporation proposed to the People’s Committee a pilot programme on using an electronic transportation cards on BRT route 01, connecting the Kim Mã and Yên Nghĩa bus stations.

Travellers using e-cards tap them on a sensor to pay and can top up their e-cards at every bus station on the route. This saves them having to purchase single journey tickets for every ride. The pilot programme is scheduled to run in September and October. — VNS