The Hanoi People's Committee has issued a plan for the expansion of the city’s mass transit network in the period 2021-2030, the Governmental Portal reported.

According to the plan, the city’s public transport infrastructure will be expanded by 80% to 90% to ensure the accessibility of the network by 2030, and meets the criteria that people anywhere in the city could hop on a bus in a radius of 500 meters.

Hanoi encourages use of buses with clean energy and environmental-friendly engine. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

In order to improve the quality of mass transportation services, Hanoi will draw up more regulations to create a healthy competitive environment, subsidize interest rates on loans of public transport companies to expand the bus fleet.

In the time ahead, the Hanoi People's Committee will strengthen information technology application in traffic management in order to maximize the capacity of existing transport infrastructure, ensure traffic safety and order, and contribute to limiting traffic accidents.

The city also aims to soon complete two schemes namely "Collecting toll on vehicles in some urban areas at risk of traffic congestion and environmental pollution" and "Zoning to curb motorbikes in accordance with infrastructure and service capacity of public transport system to ban motorbikes in the districts in 2030".

Besides, the city will build more interchange infrastructure, organize traffic in the direction of giving priority to the public transport and encourage people to use public transport services instead of private vehicles.

The municipal authorities will define the mode of mass transit, number of vehicles and the network for each period, ensuring connectivity among highly populated areas.

Hanoi will request the Vietnamese government to prioritize ODA loans for purchasing modern public transport vehicles, with emission levels meeting EURO 5 standards, using clean energy and environmental-friendly engine.

According to a report from the municipal Department of Transport, Hanoi currently has 124 bus routes, covering 30 districts and towns, 453 out of 584 communes, representing a coverage ratio of 78% of the city’s territory.

The report also showed that public passenger transport continues to grow. The city's public transport provided some 948.5 million rides in 2019. Of the number, 510.5 million were transported by bus, meeting about 17.03% of the people’s commuting demand, an increase of 3.2 percentage points compared to 2017.