The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam has mapped out a plan to inspect and supervise toll collection at 11 build-operate-transfer (BOT) road toll stations throughout the country, aiming to make the process more transparent, reported Vietnam Plus.

Vehicles travel through BOT Rach Mieu toll station in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre in this file photo. The station will be inspected by the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam soon 

The BOT toll stations which will be inspected include the ones at Pha Lai, Tam Nong, Rach Mieu Bridge, My Loi and Co Chien Bridge.

Road administration departments under the directorate were asked to team up with taxation departments, the Economic Security Department (A85) and relevant agencies under the Ministry of Public Security to launch and complete the inspection in the second quarter and then report results to the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam.

Earlier, the Directorate had launched an inspection into operations of a toll station in Dong Nai Province on the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway between January 28 and February 8 this year, following a VND2.2 billion robbery on the third day of Tet that aroused public doubts about the toll station’s fee collection activities.

The results of the inspection show that the total revenue generated from the toll collection was the same as that reported by the Vietnam Expressway Corporation, which manages the toll station.

Also, Khanh Hoa Deo Ca BOT Investment JSC, the investor of the BOT Ninh Loc project, recently proposed the Ministry of Transport ask the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam to inspect the Ninh Loc toll station’s fee collection activities over the past three months, and to invite local authorities and residents to join the inspection to clear suspicion over concealed revenue. The move is in response to some residents setting up tents near the tollgate to count the number of vehicles passing through the toll station.

Ho Dinh Chung, general director of Khanh Hoa Deo Ca BOT Investment Company, said that the inspection results would be publicized to prevent local residents from posting unverified statistics about the toll station’s fee collection activities that could provoke public concerns.

SGT