Transport companies in Hanoi are hurrying to meet travel demands which are expected to increase by up to 20 percent compared with normal immediately before Tet.

The busiest time of a year is approaching when people typically return to their hometowns before the nation's biggest holiday.

According to the director of Hanoi Bus Station Management Company, Nguyen Hoang Trung, the number of passengers travelling during the peak days (in the week before the holiday starts on February 10) would reach about 30,000 per day at Giap Bat Station and 40,000 per day at My Dinh Station.

The company has plans to allocate an additional 450 passenger cars for use at the main stations of My Dinh, Giap Bat and Gia Lam.

The Department of Transport of Hanoi has also designated 10 free buses to carry workers at industrial zones to their hometowns.

The situation in other provinces is similar. Pham Van Co, director of northern Lai Chau province's Bus Station, said tickets to Hanoi, Thai Binh and Thai Nguyen had sold out for those travelling about a week before Tet.

The Ninh Binh Department of Transport has also confirmed that no construction projects would receive approval from Feb. 2 to Feb. 17.

In related news, despite a fall in the number of accidents and deaths this month compared to January 2012, there are mounting concerns that road traffic incidents are not being cut fast enough, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.

In January, the country recorded 2,703 traffic violations, a decline of more than 25 percent compared to the same period last year. The injury number was 2,728, a reduction of 34.5 percent and the number of fatalities was 25, the same as last year.

However, HCM City and central Ninh Thuan province – two localities that achieved good results in traffic accident control in 2012 – have seen traffic accidents and related cases of death rise this month compared to December 2012 and January last year.

Across the country, transport centres of all kinds have been preparing for this period and worked to ensure that travelling remains an easy and efficient experience for passengers during the Lunar New Year.-VNA