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| Traffic police step up patrols for holidays |
Police patrols have been boosted to ensure road safety due to high travel demands during the four-day holiday beginning today in honour of National Liberation Day and May Day.
The Ministry of Public Security's Road and Railway Traffic Police Department has co-operated with the Vietnam Road Administration to control traffic nation-wide.
The teams would be on duty around the clock along key national highways, where traffic problems have occurred in the past.
Modes of public transport have already run out of tickets for the holidays, since huge numbers of people are returning home or travelling.
Phung Thi Ly Ha, deputy head of the Hanoi Train Station, said that on holidays the train system has to accommodate two times as many passengers.
Although the station added 26 train trips travelling from Hanoi to major tourism destinations like Dong Hoi, Hue, Lao Cai, Thanh Hoa and Vinh, it still failed to meet demand, she said.
Flights from Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang to the attractive locales of Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Quang Binh and Hai Phong were fully booked, according to Vietnam Airlines' agents.
Nguyen Hoang Trung, director of the Hanoi Transport Service Corporation said the company planned to run 350 additional coaches daily to Giap Bat, Gia Lam and My Dinh stations.
The company has ordered stations to ensure that substandard coaches are not allowed to set out on the road, he said.
Traffic police would be available to prevent unlicensed coaches from cheating passengers and help people feel safe travelling by coach during the holidays, said Hoang Van Manh, deputy chief inspector of the Hanoi Transport Department.
Dinh Thanh Thao from the Hanoi Police Department said that traffic police would focus on dealing with drunk driving.
As many as 211 traffic accidents occurred during last year's four-day holidays, killing 172 people and injuring 172 others nationwide.
The police dealt with around 44,200 traffic violations with fines totalling VND11.4 billion (US$548,000).
Source: VNS