VietNamNet Bridge – Transport enterprises in HCM City yesterday, Dec 30, complained that the Ministry of Transport's new regulation that requires each of them to have their own parking lot was highly impractical.
At the workshop held to review road transportation developments this year, Bui Van Quan, chairman of the city's Transport Association, said that it was very difficult for transport companies to have their own parking lot even though they desired it.

Current land prices are too high not only for individual firms, but also for co-operatives.

Pham Quoc Tai, deputy general director of the Sai Gon Transportation Mechanical Corporation, pointed out that the city was already facing a severe shortage of land for public parking spaces, so there was no question of private firms being able to develop their own.

Other representatives said that the regulation could force them to stop operations. As of now, less than a handful of very large firms like the Cong Thanh Company was leasing land to build parking lots.

The city Department of Transport should petition the ministry to change the new regulation and suggest that the city People's Committee come up with a plan to develop parking lots for transport enterprises, they said.

The lots could be built at the city's gateways to make their management easier and transport enterprises could thus have their own parking lots.

Quan said the city administration should also help transport firms by clearing land and leasing it at preferential price.

Transport firms also expressed their unhappiness with other regulations, like the one that requires buses to run from point to point without stopping for passengers in between.

A department report said the city has eight major transportation companies and 32 taxi companies this year.

Passengers came in and went out of the city more than 564,000 million times this year, an increase of 9.3 per cent over last year.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News