The Management Board of the Da Nang Priority Infrastructure Investment Projects (Management Board) has recently begun the construction of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, with a total investment capital of 70.2 million USD.

A BRT bus

The BRT system will run one main BRT route and 2 sub-routes, and they will operate daily from 5.00am to 9.00pm.

In detail, the 24.76km main route will run from the internal road No 5 in Hoa Khanh Industrial Park to the Viet Nam-Korea Friendship Information Technology Junior College on Tran Dai Nghia.  The first 35.4km sub-route, R1, will link the city’s 29 March Park to Hoi An’s Le Hong Phong Street, whilst the second 26.7km sub-route, R3, will connect the Da Nang International Airport with the Ba Na Hills Resort.

The BRT system will use 66 high quality buses that meet the Euro 4 and 5 emission standards.  Of these, 36 buses will run on the main route, whilst 17 and 13 respectively will operate on routes R1 and R3.

Under the construction of the BRT system, a road tunnel project at the intersections of Dien Bien Phu and Nguyen Tri Phuong is under construction, and it is expected to be completed in March next year.  The project will feature an 80m-long reinforced concrete and 4.75m vertical clearance tunnel which runs beneath Dien Bien Phu and goes to the intersection of Dien Bien Phu and Nguyen Tri Phuong.  Through the tunnel there will be 2 lanes for the BRT system and another 2 lanes for other vehicles.  In addition, drainage, lighting, traffic lights and a surveillance camera system will be installed.

According to the Management Board, numerous bid packages for the BRT system project are underway. 

Spain’s Getinsa Ingenieria joint venture and France’s SCE company have won a bid, worth 4.4 million USD in total, to create detailed design plans for the BRT system, and to develop bidding documents for its construction categories.  Since late 2015, 1.49 million USD has been spent on developing design plans and bidding documents, whilst other money will go into installing the equipment systems for the BRT and to ensure technical support for it operations until January 2019.

The Management Board and media experts have worked closely to develop advertisement plans for the BRT system and to create its logo and brand name.  In addition, great efforts have been made to build bus routes, design bus identification colours, and develop bus ticket fare subsidy programmes for customers.

A total of over 22 billion VND has been spent on site clearance and compensation for the local families who will be affected by the BRT system project.  In addition, work on maintenance and traffic control centres started early this year, and they are expected to be put into operation in September next year.

To date, the installation of infrastructure for the intra-city bus routes has been completed at a total cost of 578,294 USD.  The service has been operating since 10 December last year, and it is under the management of the municipal Traffic Signals and Public Transport Control Centre.