HCM CITY —  HCM City authorities will redesign a proposal for a bus rapid transit (BRT) route after the Department of Transport said the plan was not feasible. 

The BRT route was expected to operate on a total of 23 kilometres through districts 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, Bình Tân and Bình Chánh, with total investment of US$144 million. 

However, the transport department said that only 17,700 passengers were projected to use the BRT route from Võ Văn Kiệt and Mai Chí Thọ streets, instead of the 24,700 passengers previously projected. 

That figure is not much higher than the number of passengers who use ordinary buses, and is even lower than on some routes.

The BRT plan would cost much more than ordinary buses, according to the department. 

In recent years, large buses have not been operating effectively on the city’s small streets.

In addition, no street lanes are designated for buses only, and the number of motorbikes on the streets remains high.

As a result, buses often run on crowd streets during rush hour and cause traffic jams.

Many cities around the world have experienced similar problems of limited infrastructure and no dedicated lanes for BRT.

A BRT system requires investment for waiting rooms, intelligent ticket control equipment, and dedicated lanes on land areas not readily available for use in the city. 

The city targets having more than 5,600 buses by 2020 and 15 – 20 per cent of students as passengers.

Besides the current metro under construction, the city plans to build three monorails and six BRT routes. — VNS