Those vehicles exiting the city center will not be subject to the fee.

A street near HCMC's Tan Son Nhat airport is crowded with vehicles. The city will collect fees from cars entering the downtown area in the 2021-2025 period - PHOTO: TNO

The People’s Council requested the municipal government to reach a consensus with local residents and come up with a specific roadmap before rolling out the fee collection and ensure the charge is in line with measures to limit individual vehicles in the city.

Besides this, the city has to develop adequate infrastructure facilities, bus networks and motorcycle parking lots in addition to providing electric motorcycle and bicycle services before adopting measures to restrict the use of individual vehicles in the city center.

Some transport experts agreed that charging cars to enter the downtown area is among the solutions to ease traffic congestion.

Lam Thieu Quan, general director of Tien Phong Technology JSC (ITD), said the fee collection was the right move during the current time to deal with worsening traffic congestion and air pollution. Earlier, ITD was allowed by the municipal government to research a project to set up nonstop toll collection booths to charge cars heading to the center of the city.

The company had proposed that a State body would take charge of the toll collection, while the city could hire a private firm to operate the project.

According to Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Le Ninh, the city should leverage technology to manage and regulate the traffic system. In the long run, it should develop residential areas that offer all amenities to local residents, so the demand for travelling is reduced as a result, he advised. SGT