The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has finished surveying a route to travel from Can Gio District to Vung Tau City by ferry and is expected to offer the services this year.

Such ferry services would ease pressure on road travel and at the same time leverage waterway passenger transport, the department said.

Can Gio is an outlying district of Ho Chi Minh City while Vung Tau is a popular beach city in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, which is around 120km east of the southern hub.

The municipal transport department, the Can Gio People’s Committee, and the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Transport have discussed plans and surveyed the route many times to prepare for offering the ferry services.

The Ho Chi Minh City transport department will organize a bid to choose a competent investor for operating the ferry in 2019 after the municipal People’s Committee approves this initiative, said Ha Thanh Son, head of the waterway travel bureau under the department.

It would take 30 minutes to travel by ferry over the 15km between Can Gio and Vung Tau.

The ferry is estimated to be 43.45 meters long, weigh 103 metric tons, and accommodate 350 passengers, 150 motorbikes, 20 cars, and other vehicles.  

The Tac Suat ferry station in Can Gio is now available for such services so it would be used first to gauge its effectiveness, before any other facility could be built, Son said.

Currently, there is too much travel on the roads connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau, leading to severe congestion.

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