HANOI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi is considering a plan to forbid motorbikes registered in other cities and provinces from running on its road in the next few years to reduce congestions, according to the plan drafted by the Hanoi Transport Department.
The city will limit the appearance of all motorbikes in its Old Quarters at weekends from 2020, and ban the operation of motorbikes registered in other localities from the inner city from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day from 2021, daily newspaper Tien Phong (Pioneer) reported on Tuesday.
From 2023, Hanoi will forbid motorbikes registered in other localities from running in wider areas, and from 2025, it will ban all motorbikes in some areas.
The department also plans to limit personal cars on some routes and in some areas. Cars will be allowed to some parts of Hanoi's downtown in rush hour, but drivers have to pay fees.
Hanoi has set a target of having additional 500-550 buses each year from now to 2020, when it will have three bus rapid transit routes and five urban rail routes, online newspaper VietNamNet quoted the department's public transport development roadmap as reporting.
The city currently has over 5 million motorbikes, more than 500,000 automobiles, over 1 million bicycles and over 10,000 electric bicycles, while its transport infrastructure development rate is only 3.9 percent a year.
Without taking measures to limit the increase of motorbikes and automobiles on Hanoi's roads, the city will have over 6.2 million motorbikes, and 938,000 automobiles by 2020, and 7.3 million motorbikes, and 1.3 million automobiles by 2025, estimated the department.
