To develop modern and environment-friendly urban area

Early March 18, Mr. Tran Thanh Liem, Deputy Chair of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee chaired a meeting to listen to pre-feasibility researching reports of Japanese International Cooperation Association (JICA) and its related partnership of Becamex IDC and Becamex Tokyu joint venture regarding the shuttle bus connecting Binh Duong New City and Suoi Tien.

According to JICA, the shuttle bus connecting Binh Duong New City and Suoi Tien includes two projects of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and construction for development of the service around Suoi Tien Station. It is expected that the two projects would cost totally VND 3,511 billion extracted from ODA from Japan government. The purpose of this project is to establish urban axis with satellite urban areas with Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) to change transportation habits.

As the public is getting more BRT, TOD shall be concentrated in the roadmap of developing high quality urban services along the route. The efficiency brought about by transition of personal vehicles to public vehicles is estimated to be at VND 3,000 per capital per day and fuel and time saving equivalent to VND 500 per capital per day. Besides, the State is increasing tax collection sources including personal income tax, enterprise income tax, value added tax, etc.

Effectiveness

Stating his ideas for the project at the meeting, Mr. Le Van Rum, Director of Department of Transportation informed of the projects’ purposes of setting up the axis of urban and satellite urban by TOD in a bid to transiting travelling means from personal vehicles (motorbikes) to public vehicles. Accordingly, the urban axis is established by public traffic system to concentrate on developing industries of high value adding up.

The first ever shuttle bus of Binh Duong Province and nation operated by Becamex Tokyu Co. Ltd. Photo: G. Nguyen

Mr. Sakai Yoichiro, Tokyu CEO in Vietnam and a member of JICA investigation delegation, informed of urban development along the BRT routes in 3 specific stages of 2020, 2030, and 2040 for specific population, including the population stabilization along the bus stations to be developed from Binh Duong New City to Suoi Tien, BRT boosting by specialized vehicle lanes for setting up of multi-functional Binh Duong urban area with highly yielding industries with daylight population of 400,000, the expansion of Metro Railway Transit (MRT) together with improvement of demographic quality and density along the route as major positions of the industry and high quality offices with researching and developing functions.

The research results show that from now to the stage of demographic stabilization until 2021, BRT public transportation demands would be 23,255 turns of passengers a day, 52,500 turns a day by 2030 and 84,995 turns a day by 2040. The above results are based on average level; thus, if population concentration could be promoted by TOD or attraction of highly yielding industries could be made, more turns of passengers would emerge.

On the basis of economic analysis, JICA make comparison: If BRT is not implemented, people would use personal vehicles such as cars and motorbikes with average travelling time of 30 minutes, costing about VND 18,000 excluding the expenses of maintenance and repair; if BRT is in place, the travelling time would be reduced averagely 5 minutes per person as traffic jams are reduced, bringing up reduction of VND 3,000 a person a day in travelling fees. Thus, the whole society could save up to VND 30 billion a day. Additionally, if capital return rate of medium standard projects with ODA supported is at 12%, the above projects would be 53%, bringing up great social and economic significance for Binh Duong Province.

Capital sourcing constructions

As informed by JICA, BRT from Binh Duong New City to Suoi Tien Station covers 30.8km with 15 stops. If the fares stays at VND 10,500 for the first 12km and VND 522 for the next kilometers, by 2040 the fare collection would be VND 343 billion. This is the only aspect of the project to face minus 5.9% but it should be implemented to attract more passengers. The remaining factors including initial investments, tax collection from related activities, and urban development along the bus routes show good outcome with capital return up to 53%. The outstanding feature of the project is that it would help local authority to collect annually VND 573.8 billion at the average.

JICA also stated an example of Jarkata in Indonesia. Before 2004, traffic jams was troubling local government, causing both economic and environmental loss. By 2004, Indonesia operated 12 BRT routes covering 148km with 350,000 passengers a day by 2012 to basically resolve traffic issues. From then on, Indonesia has developed MRT to be fulfilled by 2018.

First pivotal project of the nation

Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuan, Deputy General Director of Becamex IDC, before proposing projects, the company has made thorough coordination with consultant agencies with direct queries made: “If Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee approves and forward the proposal to the government to cover ODA and fails, what would the consultant agency do and what does our partnership commit to rapidly develop the urban areas modern and environment-friendly manner for the sake of local invesment luring and socio-economic promotion in the locality and the whole major economic zone of Southern region of Vietnam?”

Technically, Suoi Tien Station is a funnel where passengers from Ho Chi Minh City would travel through to access Binh Duong Province. This should boost up urban development in Di An Town together with urban series along the route from Di An Town to Binh Duong New City.

Concluding the working session, Mr. Tran Thanh Liem, Deputy Chair of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee highly appreciated the researching results for meeting general developmental status of the province and region. He demanded the consultancy agency to clarify the pros and cons in implementing the project as foundation for the government to consider for approvals. Hopefully, BRT would be the first and model project invested by Public-Private Partnership (PPP) under government Decree No. 15.

Reported by Gia Nguyen – Translated by Vi Bao