Cross-urban container flows
On the afternoon of July 30, Nguyen Duy Trinh street was congested by a long line of container trucks. The road is less than 7m wide, many sections are degraded and flooded, but every day it has to carry more than 10,000 trucks and containers entering and leaving Phu Huu port.
Scenes of motorbikes weaving through large tractors occur frequently, causing people to call this the "road of death".
According to statistics, the Vo Chi Cong - Nguyen Duy Trinh section, about 1.6km long, alone recorded 21 deaths in accidents related to container trucks in the period 2019 - 2023.
Not far away, on Vo Nguyen Giap street, container trucks continuously cut across the flow of vehicles to enter Truong Tho dry port (ICD).
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh (65 years old), who has lived in this area for more than 40 years, said that people's lives are disrupted by the excessive density of trucks.
People are very tired of noise, dust and feeling insecure every time they go out" - Mr. Binh shared.
The logistics model is no longer suitable
The Truong Tho, Cat Lai, Phu Huu ICD systems and container depots were once the "backbone" of the Southern logistics chain, helping to shorten transportation time and serve import and export.
However, rapid urbanization has caused warehouses to be surrounded by residential areas, schools, and hospitals, while the volume of goods continues to increase. Cat Lai port alone receives about 19,000-22,000 container trucks per day, putting great pressure on the traffic infrastructure of the East.
Truong Tho ICD is also a typical example. With an area of about 63ha, this ICD area used to handle up to 1.8-2 million TEUs per year - a very large output if placed in an area that has become a densely populated city.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the Truong Tho ICD complex including Transimex, Phuc Long, Truong Tho ports, Tay Nam - Tanamexco ICD and Southern Logistics Port will operate until 2030, then gradually relocate to Long Binh ICD.
The relocation will be carried out according to a roadmap suitable to the investment progress of replacement logistics centers, ensuring that import and export activities and supply chains are not interrupted.
In parallel, the city is researching the addition of inland waterway ports, ICDs and logistics centers in the upstream areas of the Dong Nai and Saigon rivers, connecting with national highways, ring roads and waterway transport networks. Ho Chi Minh City is also orienting the development of the Cai Mep - Thi Vai international transshipment port cluster and Can Gio international transshipment port, forming a large-scale seaport system of the region.
Not only relocating the port but also reorganizing the cargo flow
Dr. Sc.
Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said that the traffic congestion problem of Ho Chi Minh City cannot be solved from the root if tens of thousands of containers still pass through residential areas every day.He believes that the city needs to build a specialized logistics network to separate container trucks from residential areas.
Only when goods have their own transport corridors can traffic pressure and accidents be sustainably reduced.According to the expert, the most important thing is not to immediately close ports in the inner city, but to reorganize cargo flows.Ports like Cat Lai can still take on the role of urban logistics, regional delivery and increase the proportion of transportation by barges.
Meanwhile, long-distance import and export goods, goods going by mother ships should gradually be transferred to the Cai Mep - Thi Vai deep-water port cluster.
"In other words, the objects that need to be moved first are cargo flows, then the scale of wharves, warehouses and land use functions" - Mr. Son analyzed.According to him, before reducing capacity or relocating ports, the city needs to map cargo flows in real time, as a basis for reassigning functions between ports, ICDs and depots.
Opportunity to restructure regional logistics space
Dr. Tran Quang Thang - Director of the Institute of Economics and Management of Ho Chi Minh City - said that regulating goods to Cai Mep - Thi Vai is a suitable direction in the context that the economic space of Ho Chi Minh City has expanded after the merger.
According to him, Cat Lai and Cai Mep - Thi Vai should not continue to be seen as two port clusters competing for output, but should be organized into a unified logistics system, assigning functions according to each port's advantages.
In which, Cai Mep - Thi Vai undertakes long-distance import and export goods and large tonnage ships; while Cat Lai focuses on urban logistics, cargo collection and inland waterway transport.
Mr. Tran Quang Thang also cited the experience of Shenzhen and Singapore, where logistics is organized on the basis of waterway transport, specialized transport corridors and synchronous automation systems. Containers are transported directly from production areas to seaports or airports without having to go through residential areas.
According to Mr. Thang, Ho Chi Minh City needs to move towards the "factory - seaport - airport" model with separate logistics corridors, connecting beltways, expressways, waterways and deep-water port systems.
Riverside golden land is not only for real estate
After relocating the port, Ho Chi Minh City plans to allocate riverside land funds for green spaces, public facilities, social infrastructure and appropriate urban development.
These are land plots with prime locations, conveniently connected to the transportation system and possessing very large commercial value. When container trucks leave, the pressure to develop real estate projects will almost certainly increase.
According to Dr. Tran Quang Thang - Director of the Institute of Economics and Management of Ho Chi Minh City, relocating the port does not mean that the riverside land fund will automatically be converted into high-rise housing areas or commercial centers.
Because if a port area is replaced by tens of thousands of apartments, offices and commercial areas while the public transport system, schools, hospitals and drainage infrastructure have not kept up, the city will only shift from congestion caused by container trucks to congestion caused by residents and private cars.
The riverside land fund after relocation needs to be reasonably allocated to public transport, parks, water access corridors, cultural and service works and community utilities. Construction density must be based on the load-bearing capacity of infrastructure, not just based on the commercial value of the land area" - Dr. Tran Quang Thang emphasized.
Experts say that it is necessary to exploit land funds to create resources for relocating ports and investing in infrastructure, but the valuation, auction, selection of investors and allocation of revenue must be transparent.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction informed that after relocation, the Truong Tho ICD area of about 63ha will be developed into a mixed-use, creative, green urban area, associated with public transport and the TOD model along Metro Line 1.
The city prioritizes parks, public spaces, riverside green corridors, walkways, bicycles, along with educational, cultural, research, and social infrastructure projects. Commercial, service, office and housing functions will be arranged in appropriate proportions.
The land use plan will be specified in the planning projects, ensuring that the land fund after relocation creates more urban value, expands access to water surface and improves the living environment, instead of only for housing and commerce. Son Ha
