HANOI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City will launch its first passenger riverway route in early June to help reduce road traffic congestion, the municipal Transport Department said Friday.
The 10.8-km route will run through the four districts of 1, 2, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc and will take passengers some half an hour to cover the distance on Saigon River, or two-third of the time needed to complete a similar bus route on land.
According to the route's operator, a Vietnamese company, the route's fare will be some 30,000 Vietnamese dong (over 1.3 U.S. dollars), but Ho Chi Minh City should subsidize the fare so that it will stand at only 15,000 Vietnamese dong.
The second passenger riverway route with 10.3 kilometers in length will run through the five districts of 1, 4, 5, 6 and 8.
The two routes, which will be connected to bus routes, will receive total investment of over 120 billion Vietnamese dong and built in the mode of Build-Own-Operate. (1 Vietnamese dong = 0.000044 U.S. dollar)
