WB may finance $300m to help HCM City develop urban traffic system

World Bank (WB) recently said that it is ready to provide a $300 million loan for HCM City to modernise the urban bus network, provided that the city complies with the steps that this donor has built in a project called “Green traffic development in HCM City”
To introduce this project, from the beginning of the week, a WB’s mission led by Ke Fang, senior expert on urban transport, arrived in HCM City.

Supported by the HCM City Department of Transportation, for past three days, they presented this proposal to the leaders of the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment, HCM City Institute for Development and Studies (HIDS) and the HCM City Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) before meeting the vice Standing Chair of HCM City People’s Committee, Nguyen Thanh Tai, in the afternoon March 9.

“This project is aimed at three goals. The first is to deal with the urgent needs of urban traffic by building a network of rapid buses (Bus Rapid Transit-BRT) and modernising the number of existing buses. The second is to optimise the effect of the metro and road lines, and finally, strengthen the management and administration capacity for organisations responsible for urban transport, ” Fang explained.

“We know that the city is making big investments for the subway (metro) lines, but in the next 5-10 years, the buses are still the important public transport means. Even, in the advanced countries, when they have metro line already, the buses are still needed to connect “Fang said.

According to the expert, WB will not only offer the support on investment capital for the city but also provide more knowledge and international experience in planning, investment, development and operation of public transport vehicles.

Also attending this meeting, Paul Vallely, WB’s coordinator in Vietnam who specialises in the transportation network said that the aforementioned figure of $300 million is only a preliminary estimate, of which $150 million is to develop the BRT line, $80 million is for the investment in new buses, and $70 million remaining is to spend on the infrastructure and institutional strengthening.” – Saigontimes

Tags: Vietnam Infrastructure