Housing development should be done along the under-construction metro network while jobs should be created nearby to reduce the need for transport in congested HCM City, an expert has said.

An overview of HCM City by Sai Gon River. The city will consider development of new residential areas and high-rise buildings to reduce traffic overload in downtown.

“HCM City has been developing so fast and the transport infrastructure has not been able to catch up with it,” Prof Dr Nguyen Trong Hoa, a former director of the city’s architecture department, told a conference titled “Properly organising urban space” on Wednesday.

He suggested that people should be settled along main transport routes by taking advantage of the metro system.

“The city will consider development of new residential areas and high-rise buildings. The city should move residents out of geologically poor areas and settle them along the metro system and organise working areas nearby,” Hoa said.

He wondered why if Binh Duong Province could build social housing for VNĐ100 million ($4.500) HCM City does not let its workers live there.

“Moving residents to outskirts is very important to reduce the overload in downtown, but the city must have good transport links with neighbouring provinces.”

Nguyen Van Tam, deputy director of the transport department, said “Urbanisation has continued, the number of private vehicles has sharply increased and this leads to an overload on transport infrastructure, for which funding is very limited.”

Nguyen Thanh Toan, deputy director of the architecture department, said “Traffic congestion is becoming more and more serious in HCM City and partly from wrong forecasting and master planning for transportation.”

The city is trying to develop in all four directions, especially the east and south, with private sector investment in real estate being huge but public spending on infrastructure being abysmal.

“The city really needs a professional master plan for urban development with good infrastructure.”

His department has urged the city’s Party Committee and People’s Committee to review all proposed high-rise buildings.

“The architecture department will call on the municipal People’s Committee to create transport links with neighbouring provinces like Long An and Binh Duong to enable people to work in HCM City and live there.”

Transport expert Nguyen Kim Lang said if HCM City would like to build satellite cities, it needs to build a metro or BRT system first. 

HCM City to build new roads along canals

HCM City’s Department of Planning and Investment has petitioned the city’s People’s Committee to approve a project to build roads along the Tham Luong - Ben Cat - Nuoc Len canals under a Build – Transfer (BT) contract.

On each side of the canals, the road will be more than 31km long and 12m wide, with two 7m lanes for motor vehicles and two 5m lanes for non-motorised vehicles. Sidewalks will be 8m wide.

The road will run through districts Bình Chách, 8, 12, Bình Tân, Tân Bình, Gò Vấp and Bình Thạnh.

The road will extend from Nuoc Len Canal to the Vam Thuat – Sai Gon Estuary.

The investors, Phương Nam Joint-Stock Company and Pacific Investment Joint-Stock Company, will be responsible for the capital and the city’s People’s Committee will provide land from the city’s land fund.

To ensure smooth flow of traffic, the city’s Department of Transport said the roads should be at least 14m wide, not 12m as proposed.

The project, expected to begin this year and be completed in 2019, will cost about VNĐ3.5 trillion (US$156 million).

VNS