Immediately after the bus fire incident on Ly Thuong Kiet street on the morning of May 16, the Hanoi City Traffic Management and Operation Center (Hanoi Department of Construction) issued an urgent official dispatch requesting to strengthen fire prevention and fighting for public passenger transport activities in the area.
Request public passenger transport enterprises by bus and Hanoi Railway Company Limited to strictly grasp fire prevention and fighting according to regulations.
Units are required to strengthen inspection, maintenance, and repair of vehicles before putting them into operation, especially for parts related to batteries, batteries, and gas cylinders to ensure technical safety. At the same time, regularly monitor technical conditions, fully implement inspection and maintenance regimes, and only put vehicles that meet safety conditions into operation.
In addition, units must proactively review and replace expired fire extinguishers on buses, trains, at stations, depots and parking lots; fully list fire prevention and fighting regulations, fire prohibition signs, fire fighting commands and escape diagrams in areas with high fire and explosion risks.
Transport businesses are also required to organize training on fire prevention and fighting skills, escape and handling situations when fires occur; regularly inspect to promptly detect shortcomings and deficiencies related to fire prevention and fighting and strictly handle violations.
The Hanoi City Traffic Management and Operation Center assigned the inspection and supervision department to strengthen inspection of fire prevention and fighting work on buses, trains and at stations; strictly handle cases of bringing vehicles that do not meet quality standards or fire extinguishers that have expired into operation.
Currently, Hanoi's bus network has 1,946 vehicles operating on 129 routes operated by 11 units. It is expected that by the end of 2026, the whole city will have 857 clean-energy buses, including 718 electric vehicles and 139 CNG vehicles.
Not only buses, other forms of public transport also recorded a trend of green transformation. For taxis, out of a total of 14,375 vehicles in operation, there are 8,992 electric vehicles. For contract cars with fewer than 8 seats connected to technology, there are currently 23,819 electric vehicles and 105 hybrid vehicles out of a total of 52,180 vehicles.
