This will be part of the efforts to ease congestion and improve traffic safety.

Dau An Phuc, head of the Road Traffic Infrastructure Exploitation Department, said the city had had about 5.6 million personal vehicles, including 5 million motorbikes, by the end of January 2012 and that the annual growth of those vehicles in 2011 was 13 percent, or 637,000 vehicles.

Therefore, it is time to limit the personal vehicle use and remove a number of parking lots on roads and sidewalks to improve traffic safety and minimize traffic jams, he said.

The department has considered reducing the number of vehicles that enter the centre of the city and banning some types of vehicles on a number of streets. They expect to introduce the ban in the last quarter of this year.

In addition, other measures such as vehicle registration management through certificate of eligibility (COE) and increasing fees related to vehicle registration and use are also being taken into account.

The department has submitted a feasible plan to the municipal People’s Committee for the collection of traffic fees from cars that travel into the downtown area, Phuc said, adding that such a plan has been applied successfully in Singapore.

At the same time, the department is reviewing the parking services on streets – both on roads and sidewalks – with a view to reducing the number of streets allowing the service by half at the end of this quarter or early in the second quarter, he said.

Along with this move, the department will coordinate with districts’ authorities to set up proper parking lots as replacements to meet the public’s demand for parking.

“In the long run, no streets or sidewalks will be allowed to be used for parking,” he said.

Asked why the city has yet to speed up the creation of new parking lots, Phuc admitted that there was a delay in developing the project to build underground parking lots and said that the department would facilitate the removal of hindrances to those projects so that they can be developed soon.

Asked about the department’s responsibility for the situation in which many multi-storey buildings have been built downtown, worsening the traffic congestion, Phuc said many project developers had not consulted with the department until they had completed their construction.

”Under the city authorities’ directive, they must consult the department to determine whether their projects are proper before they begin construction,” he said.

Source: Tuoi Tre