Six teams have made it through to the first round of the competition, which will award a US$200,000 prize to the winner, said Ngo Manh Tuan, deputy head of the city’s transport department.

The city plans to hold a press conference to officially introduce the six finalists selected from more than 200 applicants, Tuan said.

Rush hour traffic at an intersection in Hanoi. Photo by AFP

The candidates have been invited to submit further information on their solutions for the next round of evaluation over the next three months.

The department launched the competition in mid-January to ask for solutions from members of the public to solve its serious congestion problems.

The department asked contestants to focus on ideas involving underground parking spaces, intelligent transportation systems and ways to control private vehicles in a city dominated by motorcycles.

Statistics show that Hanoi has more than 5.5 million personal vehicles, including nearly 500,000 cars and more than five million motorcycles, and an average of over 19,000 new vehicles are registered each month. The numbers are expected to increase to more than 7.3 million motorbikes and 1.3 million cars by 2025.