A covered bus shelter in a residential area in Times City, Hai Bà Trưng District, Hà Nội. —VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tùng

HÀ NỘI — The majority of bus stops in Hà Nội have no roofs or seats, leaving passengers exposed to all elements.

There are a total of 3,775 bus stops in the capital, but only 10 per cent are covered.

This means passengers waiting for public transport are open to both sun and rain depending on the weather.

Nguyễn Hương Trà, who often travels by bus to go to work in Hoàn Kiếm District, said it was inconvenient for passengers when they had to wait at a bus stop without a roof and seats, especially, children and the elderly people.

“I have often to wait at the bus stops without roof and seats in very hot weather and I think it is a terrible experience,” she said.

The time waiting for a bus was normally about 10 -15 minutes. If a bus stop was equipped with roof and seats, it would be more convenient for passengers, she added.

A resident in Linh Đàm Residential Area, Hoàng Mai District, said she had to take other means of transport to go to work when it rained because the bus stop near the residential area has no roof.

Improvement plan

The city administration already approved the project to build 235 new bus shelters and upgrade 365 old shelters in the city using the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 2019. The project, estimated to be worth nearly VNĐ1 trillion (US$42.9 million), is expected to be finished within seven years.

Under the project, the new bus shelters are planned to be installed in 12 districts of Ba Đình, Hai Bà Trưng, Long Biên, Thanh Xuân, Hoàn Kiếm, Tây Hồ, Bắc Từ Liêm, Nam Từ Liêm, Cầu Giấy, Hoàng Mai, Đống Đa and Hà Đông.

The shelters will be built following the European standards, meeting the requirements of urban beauty and increasing people's access to bus services. The investors will spend 100 per cent of capital on constructing, operating and maintaining shelters over 20 years.

Currently, local authorised agencies have appraised the design of the bus shelters.

In a related move, the city administration has assigned Hà Nội Transport Corporation to compile another projects to build bus shelters in suburban districts of the city and Sơn Tây Town to attract more local people to use public transport. — VNS