Da Nang (VNA) – In co-operation with Toyota Mobility
Foundation (TMF), the central city of Da Nang officially on June 30 debuted a
new public bus route as part of its urban traffic corridor improvement project.
The bus route, which took two years of work and total
investment of 2.9 million USD, will help boost the city’s internal bus services
by offering public car parking areas, bus stops and shuttle bus routes
connecting residential quarters and public destinations.
The project will also support commuters with free bike
parking and smart parking at the departure bus station as well as bus tracking
apps on mobile devices.
As planned, commuters will get a one-year complementary
ticket as well as free wi-fi service on the bus.
The bus routes, which use eight 50-seat buses, will operate
from 5.45am to 8.45pm everyday.
General Secretary of TMF and Executive Vice President of
Toyota Motor Corporation, Osamu Nagata, said the project aims to help the city
prevent traffic congestion in the future as well as contributing to the city’s
sustainable development.
Vice Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Dang Viet Dung
said the public bus routes would help change the habits of using personal
vehicles for daily travel among local residents.
He said the route, in addition to the current 11 public
ones, offers commuters more options to utilise a safe and
environmentally-friendly vehicle.
On the occasion, Toyota Vietnam donated two Toyota Coaster
buses to the city as part of the project signed in 2015.
Last year, the city launched five new inner-city bus routes with
61 new 40-seat busses. They will run every 20 minutes between 5am until 9pm, he
added.
The city plans to build Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and
14 regular bus routes by 2020 under the World Bank-funded sustainable
development project.
The city’s population of 900,000 has far outgrown the
current public bus system, which has just 48 buses travelling on five routes,
meeting just 10 percent of demand.
The city’s Transport Department estimates that residents
make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 percent of them on motorbikes.
Da Nang is Vietnam’s fourth largest city and is highly
regarded by other cities for its planning, governance and infrastructure.
In 2013, the World Bank agreed a 272.1 million USD sustainable
development project, of which 202.4 million USD will be channeled into helping
improve the city’s BRT network, build new roads and revamp the drainage
system.-VNA