The HCM City Department of Transport plans to carry out public bidding for bus routes in 2020. (Photo from baogiaothong.vn)HCM City (VNS/VNA)– Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Transport plans to open public biddingfor bus routes next year following regulations in a decree issued earlierthis year.
The decree,which assigns tasks, orders and bids on publicproducts and services using State funds, took effect on June 1.
The city has bus routesoperated by 12 different companies. Of the number, 99 routes are subsidised bythe State.
The city plans to put 42 routesup for bid in 2020.
“This work also aims toreduce the State's financial subsidies and improve services to attractmore passengers,” Tran Quang Lam, the department director, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper.
The city has spent around 1trillion VND (43 million USD) on annual subsidies for buses since 2012.
However, the number ofpassengers has fallen significantly, from 302 million in 2012 to 194million in 2018.
The number of passengers in thefirst nine months of 2019 saw a decrease of 13.2 per cent compared to the sameperiod of 2018.
Lam said heavy trafficcongestion, inconvenient access, and long waiting times were among the reasonsthat people preferred motorcycles to buses.
Nguyen Van Thao, Director ofBus Cooperative No 15, said: “In fact, all bus cooperatives in the city arefacing losses because the number of passengers is not stable and thecity’s subsidy is not enough for expenses.”
Nguyen Ngoc Binh, Director ofBus Cooperative No 28, agreed with Thao. “Popular bus routes may attractinvestors, but I’m afraid unpopular routes will be ignored.”
The department iscreating incentives to attract investors and businesses to invest inbus services./.
VNA
