HCM CITY — HCM City’s Department of Planning and Architecture has proposed to the government to open a road or railway route dedicated to container trucks entering Cát Lái Port.

This is to avoid these vehicles from using urban roads for transporting goods and leading to traffic congestion.

Previously, the government had approved a plan to establish a rail route to Cát Lái Port to transport goods. But the plan was abolished in 2013.

Late last year, HCM City had once again suggested to the Ministry of Transport to re-consider the construction of railway lines into ports in the city, especially into Cát Lái Port, to ease traffic in those areas.

Currently, all trucks transporting goods to and from Cát Lái Port run from Mai Chí Thọ Street to Mỹ Thủy intersection and Cát Lái Port.

Nguyễn Thanh Toàn, deputy director of the city’s department, said the incidence of trucks and container trucks using urban roads to transport goods in and out of Cát Lái Port was unavoidable.

He, however, said that normally, a port must use a railway route or road dedicated to transporting goods.

He proposed to re-design the capacity of the port and re-plan the railway route dedicated to transporting cargo to Cát Lái Port.

Earlier, Bùi Xuân Cường, director of the city’s Department of Transport, had said the department would accelerate the construction and operation of two new bridges in Cát Lái area in April-May this year.

He also confirmed that after repairing the D1 and D2 routes in the third quarter of this year, container trucks would be allowed to operate on those routes to reduce the overloading on Mai Chí Thọ and Đồng Văn Cống streets.

Cát Lái Port always witnesses heavy traffic congestion during peak hours, when vehicles can take up to six hours to cross the 8km road.

According to the plan of HCM City’s Department of Transport, some 36 million tonnes of cargo are expected to pass through Cát Lái Port every year.

But in 2016, the cargo volume exceeded the plan by 53 million tonnes. It reached 27.2 million tonnes in the first seven months of 2017. On an average, some 17,000 trucks move in and out of Cát Lái Port every day. This number can reach between 20,000 and 22,000 per day during peak times. — VNS