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 said that a monorail is an effective means of transport and is popular in many cities in the world. The Ministry of Transport has sent its staff to China’s Chongqing city to survey monorail networks. Vietnamese experts have recognised several advantages of monorails and said that they are appropriate for Vietnam.
They said that investment in monorails is equivalent to half of that needed for subways while the time of construction is shorter and land coverage is narrower. Monorail is also less noisy than a subway. It is suitable for cities with populations of around seven million. 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 jams in western Hanoi. This project was also backed by transport experts.
