VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi authorities on June 18 decided to reduce investment for traffic infrastructure in 2011-2015, from $13 to $7 billion. Most of the fund will be spent on belt roads and the urban railway system.

With VND153 trillion ( $7 billion), Hanoi plans to build modern framework traffic infrastructure, to connect satellite towns to Hanoi’s center, to stretch population density and build new rural areas, to diverse forms of public transport, to gradually reduce personal vehicles and to build some urban works to curb traffic jams.

In detail, the goals include: working out detailed plans on traffic infrastructure for 100 percent of towns and districts by 2015, increasing the land area for transportation by 0.3-05 percent per annum so that by 2015, the land for transport will account 8.5 to 9 percent of the total area, developing an additional 12 bus routes to serve 777 million passengers by 2015.

To attain these goals, Hanoi will focus investment in building infrastructure, road belts, roads to the city’s centers, the urban railway system and solving “black spots” of traffic.

In 2011-2015, the capital city plans to finish the construction of National Highway 32 (Cau Dien-Nhon section), the road from Nhat Tan to Noi Bai International Airport, Cau Chui-Cau Duong road, Van Dien-Ngoc Hoi road, Phu Lo – Noi Bai Airport road.

Some belt roads will be also built, including the belt road No. 1 (O Cho Dua – Hoang Cau, O Dong Mac, Nguyen Khoai, Hoang Cau – Voi Phuc and Huu Hong dike from Nhat Tan Bridge to Chuong Duong Bridge), belt road No. 2 (Nhat Tan – Buoi, Vinh Tuy Bridge – Nga Tu So – Nga Tu Vong and overhead road from Vinh Tuy to Nga Tu So) and belt road No. 3 (Phap Van – Thang Long bridge).

Roads in the city’s center will be finalized, consisting of Van Cao – West Lake, Cat Linh – La Thanh, Yen Hoa – Vietnam Ethnology Museum, Kim Ma – Tran Phu, Ton That Tung – belt road No.3, Nui Truc – Son Tay, etc.

Some bridges across the Red River and Duong River will be built, namely Dong Tru, Nhat Tan, Vinh Tuy and Duong while preparations for building other bridges like Tu Lien, Hong Ha, Me So and Thuong Cat will be made.

Hanoi will also try to complete two urban railway routes: Nhon – Hanoi railway station, Cat Linh – Ha Dong by 2015.

Earlier, the Hanoi Department of Transportation submitted to the Hanoi People’s Committee a $13 billion plan to develop traffic infrastructure to 2015.

However, experts suspected the feasibility of this plan since the needed capital is huge. The Hanoi authorities had reduced estimated investment from $13 to $9.2 billion and now to $7 billion.

The funding will be raised from the state budget, Hanoi budget, official development aid and other sources.

PV