The statement was made by the Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi and Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Quoc Trieu at a regular meeting on April 23. After hearing a report on Hanoi’s development plan on transport till 2020, Mr Nghi emphasized that Hanoi’s transport system should be built in accordance with international urban standards.

The Ministry of Transport has implemented Hanoi’s development plan on transport since 2000 and co-ordinated with the municipal People’s Committee to submit the plan to the Prime Minister for approval by the end of 2004. The PM assigned the Ministry of Construction to appraise the plan before approving.

Expanding belt ways and building new expressways

Mr To Anh Tuan, director of the Hanoi Architecture Planning Department, said basic targets till 2020 should be identified under the adjustments of Hanoi’s development plan. For example, land funds for building transport infrastructure should make up 20-50 percent of urban land. The development of public the transport network should play a key role in meeting travel demands in urban areas and account for 30 percent (by 2010) and 55-60 percent (by 2020) while an urban railway system should make up 30 percent.

Under the plan, the city will upgrade and expand highways with four to six lanes and build new expressways and highways such as Hanoi-Hai Phong, Hanoi-Thai Nguyen, Hanoi-Thanh Hoa, Hanoi-Lao Cai, Lang-Hoa Lac. In addition, Hanoi will expand and build new beltways No 2, 3 and 4 with a total length of 244km and between 6 and 8 lanes. Existing urban access routes will be upgraded and expanded along with developing belts to connect satellite urban areas around Hanoi.

Mr Tuan said the national railway network will also be improved in the future.  After 2010, new railway routes will be built to link Hanoi to other cities within a radius of 50-70 km. The railway route Ngoc Hoi-Yen Vien will be upgraded to an overhead railway. Hanoi railway station will also be upgraded to become a centre to link public transport to the north-south railway.

It’s planned that by 2020 Hanoi will have international Noi Bai airport, domestic Gia Lam airport and military special-purpose Mach Mai airport. The city will also build a second international airport in its urban area to meet requirements from socio-economic development and international exchanges for Hanoi and provinces in the northern key economic region.

Mr To Anh Tuan said Mieu Mon has been selected as a venue for the construction site of the new international airport, but recent surveys showed that this venue has not yet satisfied necessary conditions.

Measures to resolve urgent issues relating to Hanoi’s traffic networks

Chairman of the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee, Nguyen Quoc Trieu, said that it is essential to pay due attention to the balance in the development of public transport in the capital city.

He said: “In the past, we achieved remarkable success in developing the bus network. However, this means of transport only develops within a limited framework before it has an impact on other vehicles.”

According to Mr Trieu, it is necessary to focus on building a subway system in Hanoi because this modern means of transport has many advantages.

Regarding the development of the road system, Mr Trieu said it is vital to carefully consider two big decisions: first, continuing to expand the city’s old inner road system with huge expenditure for land acquisition; second, enlarging the city area by moving schools and public offices to suburban areas in order to ease pressure on traffic infrastructure.

Secretary of the Hanoi municipal Party Committee, Pham Quang Nghi, urged the city’s functional agencies to make forecasts about the development capacity of Hanoi and its surrounding provinces. Priorities should be given to metro lines to resolve urgent issues relating to Hanoi’s traffic networks. This means of transport is very convenient as it is not affected by station distribution, direction and line like road traffic, Mr Nghi said.

He noted that Hanoi should allocate land area for traffic infrastructure based on standards of modern cities in the world. The construction of additional bridges over the Red River should be calculated carefully in terms of the number of bridges, the position of construction sites and priorities given to implementation work.