VietNamNet Bridge – Transport Minister Dinh La Thang has asked Hanoi and HCM City to research and add monorail networks to their public transport systems in order to curb congestion.

The Ministry of Transport has also instructed relevant agencies to meet with monorail investors to research monorail models which can transport 300,000-400,000 passengers per day.

Mr. Thang says that a monorail is an effective means of transport which is popular in many cities in the world. The Ministry of Transport has sent its staff to China’s Chongqing city to make a survey of monorail networks. Vietnamese experts have realized several advantages of monorails and said that it is appropriate to Vietnam.

They said that investment in monorail is equivalent to half of subway while the time of construction is shorter and land coverage is narrower. Monorail is also less noisy than subway. It is suitable to cities with population of around seven millions. This means of transport is also effective during rush hour since it runs on separate routes.

According to the Ministry of Transport, based on the above advantages, monorail networks which can serve 300,000 passengers per day fit Hanoi and HCM City and they can help control traffic jams in these cities.

In mid-2010, the Vietnam Construction Import Export Corporation (Vinaconex) submitted a monorail project in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) to the government. Vinaconex said that this project can deal with traffic jam in western Hanoi. This project was also backed by transport experts.

Thu Hang