VietNamNet Bridge – The city's Department of Transport has proposed setting up an agency that would manage all the city's road excavation projects, which is currently done by several agencies individually responsible for environment, water supply and electricity projects.


Traffic congestion at the Ky Dong-Tran Quoc Thao junction in HCM City's District 3. The city's Department of Transport has proposed setting up an agency to manage roadworks. (Photo: VNS)
The proposal comes after many complaints coming from the public about road projects that have affected traffic flow and business at shops along roads.

According to an official from the Transport Department, the congestion and roadwork often occurred last year because the roadwork projects of various agencies were not scheduled properly.


In order to limit work to one section of road only, the city's Department of Transport has asked the HCM City Electricity, Post and Telecommunications, Sai Gon Water Company and other agencies to co-ordinate their scheduling of roadwork projects with each other.


Nguyen Vinh Ninh of the city's Transport Department said one agency should be set up to manage all road projects.


The city's district-level People's Committees will be responsible for telling the public and local businesses to contact the local water supply company if water metres need to be removed or installed because of roadwork projects.


Once a road is dug up for a project, no additional work will be allowed for another five years, the department has proposed.

This was the first of several solutions proposed recently in the programme to reduce traffic congestion in the city by 2015.


This year, inspectors will improve monitoring of roadwork barriers erected around the city as well as withhold licenses from contractors who delay work for long periods.

According to the department, this year about 21,463km of road will be dug up for environmental projects.


The increasing number of vehicles on the road has also contributed to traffic congestion.


Last year there were about five million motorbikes and cars on the roads. The number of the city's cars accounted for one-third of the country's total, with about 450,000 vehicles registered last year, a growth of 20 per cent against 2009.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News