On May 28, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction announced the plan to develop a high-rise parking system at bus stations in the city.
According to the Department of Construction, the Public Transport Management Center under the Department has surveyed and proposed to invest in 5 automatic parking lots at bus stations under its management authority.
After reviewing, the Department of Construction proposed to supplement funding for maintenance of the infrastructure system serving public passenger transport in 2026 to deploy 4 floating parking lots using capital from transport project expenditures.
After being allocated capital, the Public Transport Management Center will complete procedures and submit an economic and technical report for approval to deploy construction, striving to complete the projects in 2026.
Parking lots are expected to be built at Cho Lon bus station (Zone A and Zone B), 23/9 Park bus station and Tan Phu bus station. Each parking lot has a scale of about 50 cars and 120 motorbikes.
According to the Department of Construction, after merging with Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City currently manages more than 12.8 million vehicles, including nearly 1.2 million cars, not including the number of vehicles from other localities circulating into the city every day.
Meanwhile, the existing wharf system only meets about 2.69 hectares out of a total of 550 hectares of planned land for static traffic, equivalent to about 0.5% of actual demand.
The shortage of parking spaces makes many vehicles have to stop and park on the road or drive around looking for parking spaces, contributing to increasing traffic congestion in the central area.
The Department of Construction said it will continue to research and propose appropriate mechanisms and policies to invest in more underground and above-ground parking lots to gradually solve the situation of parking lot shortages in the city.
Building high-rise parking lots at bus stations not only contributes to meeting parking demand but also supports the development of public passenger transport.
When there is a convenient parking spot, people can park their personal vehicles at the station and continue their journey by bus. This is considered a solution to remove one of the major barriers currently in the transition from personal vehicles to public transport.
