Hanoi may postpone a controversial motorbike ban in its inner-city areas until 2030, instead of 2025 as planned earlier, said municipal Party Secretary Hoang Trung Hai at an interview with reporters on October 28.

Hai said that Hanoi currently has around 560,000 cars and 5.5 million motorbikes and the figures will continue increasing, adding more pressures for the city’s transport infrastructure as well as causing traffic problems.

Hanoi Party Secretary Hoang Trung Hai at an interview with reporters on October 28.

However, currently, Hanoi has only 96 bus routes with 1,500 buses, covering just 71% of 12 inner-city districts, Hai said. He also admitted the fact that many bus routes remain inconvenient for people, discouraging them from using the service. There was still a lack of routes linking the city’s outlying districts.

He said that in reality, every year, the Vietnamese government has to spend around VND800 billion (USD38 million) on subsidising bus operations and the figure would be VND1.8 trillion in 2020. In the coming years, Hanoi will develop more infrastructure projects for public transport, which is expected to attract more people to use buses.

According to the official, to deal with the problem, in some years to come, the city plans to raise the number of bus routes to 150 consisting of 2,000 buses. Hanoi will also build eight urban railway projects.

“Hanoi may delay the motorbike ban in the downtown areas from 2030, instead of the year of 2025 as planned earlier so that the city will have more time for transport infrastructure development. We will submit the proposal to the city people’s council for approval,” Hai added.

Earlier, some local experts said that a complete ban on motorbikes by 2025 was an unrealistic goal, but a 50% reduction on the number private vehicles by 2025 might be more likely.