VietNamNet Bridge – Ha Noi authorities are aiming to alleviate 44 hot spots of traffic congestion, the city transport department said in a meeting on Tuesday.

Recently, the municipal People's Commission has decided to spend VND2.2 trillion (US$100 million) to reduce traffic congestion hot spots in the city for the 2016-20 period.

To realise the target, the city plans to upgrade 50 roads and intersections and install new traffic lights in 56 junctions.

The city will also build more flyovers in the southern part of the city and 10 more pedestrian bridges and underground tunnels in streets where terrible congestion usually occurs during rush hour. The flyovers and pedestrian bridges will effectively help reduce traffic jams, said the department.

The period will also witness the construction of bridges and flyovers, and the upgrading of roads in the inner city and outskirt areas.

This year, the department will focus on traffic management, speeding up and completing key public transport construction to reduce the traffic burden in the inner city.

Passenger transport activity will be reviewed and re-arranged. There will also be stricter sanctions and fines on overloaded vehicles.

The department set a target to ease 8 to 10 out of the 44 remaining traffic congestion spots and limit the duration of traffic jams to less than 30 minutes this year.

Along with the task of limiting the traffic jam spots, the city also set a target of controlling and reducing traffic-related accidents by 5 to 10 per cent.

Speaking at the meeting, officials from the Ministry of Transport and the city authority said the municipal transport sector should further apply advanced technology in urban traffic management and planning. The development of public transport was an important factor to reducing traffic jams in inner city.

Last year, the city's transport sector put into operation 10 infrastructure works, repaired and upgraded dozens of roads as well as equipped traffic lamp posts and lights in hundreds of streets in the inner city.

Several measures of controlling traffic congestion were carried out and got some results. The traffic police and mobile police were present at 125 spots which had a high risk of congestion in peak hours everyday.

Last year, 11 hot spots of traffic congestion were improved.

VNS