HO CHI MINH CITY, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Three new compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations will be set up here to meet refueling demand of CNG buses this year, according to the municipal Transport Department.

Ho Chi Minh City needs a total of 19 CNG filling stations to accommodate the rising number of CNG buses in the coming years, Vietnam News Agency on Monday quoted director of the department's Public Transportation Management Center, Tran Chi Trung, as saying.

Next year, the department expects to build an additional 12 CNG filling stations in many districts, he said.

The installation follows a plan of the municipal authorities to create an environmentally friendly system of passenger transportation.

The city aims to replace about 3,120 buses with new ones in the 2018-2020 period. Of the figure, it is estimated that the city can reach about 75 percent of the replaced buses running on clean fuel like CNG.

However, the city currently has only four CNG filling stations, which are located far from the city center, leading to increased operational costs for bus operators and more time for bus refueling.