This is evidenced by some road sections densely populated with toll booths and by some of them standing close to schools, causing great inconvenience.

Many southern localities like HCM City, Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc and Binh Duong are developing transport infrastructure aimed at enhancing inter-regional connectivity and reducing traffic jams.

The project investors have placed booths on new roads for collecting toll and recovering their investment, but some of these are placed in such a manner that frustrates both local residents and drivers.

For instance, there is a toll station on Hanoi Highway at the eastern gateway of HCM City; and just a little further, another one for the Phu My Bridge. About 15km away, there are toll booths on Nguyen Van Linh and An Suong - An Lac section on National Highway 1A.

In Binh Duong Province, three BOT toll stations on National Highway No 13 and Provincial Road No 743 are located at a distance of about 5-7km from each other.

The Vinh Phu BOT toll station is placed at the border area between the province’s Thuan An Town and HCM City, which is a crowded intersection with an elementary school located nearby.

The station has set up toll booths at three locations on National Highway No 13 and Provincial Road No 745, charging VND15,000 (US$0.65) per car each way, making it quite expensive for people to travel, especially into Thuan An.

Then there are three toll stations on a 7km-long section of the Provincial Road No 743, charging VND10,000 ($0.43) per car each way.

These are located close to the People's Committee of Binh Hoa Ward in Thuan An, and a number of public and private kindergartens.

HCM City resident Nguyen Van Hau, 40, told the Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper that he often commuted from HCM City’s Go Vap District through Thuan An and Di An towns in Binh Duong Province to National Highway 1K, transporting goods.

“The distance is less than 10km but I must go through three toll booths and pay tens of thousands of dong each time. It is very difficult for workers like me,” he said.

A toll booth on National Highway 1K located in a border area between Binh Duong Province’s Di An City and Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City was suspended in October 2020, but the structure remains, unmaintained, increasing the risk of traffic accidents.

Binh Phuoc Province is another southern locality that has many toll stations placed too close to each other.

A 159km section of provincial road No 741 running from the province’s Phuoc Long Town to HCM City has six toll stations with distances of 17.2 to 58km in between them.

Meanwhile there are two toll stations on National Highway No 13 section from Chon Thanh District to the Hoa Lu International Border Gate.

Double dozen

Dau Van Dung, a resident in the province’s Bu Dop District, said he had to pay toll 24 times when going through BOT projects’ booths transporting local agricultural products to HCM City.

“This is one of the reasons why the price of local agricultural products is often higher than in other places,” he said.

Minimum distance

In Dong Nai, there are six BOT toll stations placed on National Highway 1 in Trang Bom District and National Highway No 51 in Bien Hoa City managed by the Ministry of Transport; and another located on Provincial Road No 768 in Vinh Cuu District which leads to the Tan Cang quarry in Long Thanh District, and yet another on road No 319 connecting to the Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway managed by the provincial transport department.

Following the Ministry of Finance’s latest regulations, these toll stations are placed at suitable locations with a distance of at least 70km between each other.

Le Trung Tinh, former chairman of HCM City Inter-provincial Passenger Transport and Tourism Association, said the transport sector, including that of passenger transport, was facing many difficulties because of the COVID-19 pandemic and decreasing travel demand.

Functional sectors and localities need to consider reducing road tolls, review booth locations, as well as operation of all toll stations. If any toll station has collected enough investment cost, its operation should be stopped, he said.

To limit the negative impacts of toll booths, the Ministry of Transport has said it is reviewing the situation and planning to strictly control toll collection, avoid losses and adjust the collection period if needed.

One of the most important solutions to control and make revenue collection by BOT projects more transparent is to implement electronic non-stop toll collection (ETC) at all booths.

The ministry has said it will continue to increase the percentage of vehicles using the non-stop toll collection, gradually replacing manual toll collection (MTC).

According to statistics from the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, around 2.3 million vehicles have registered for ETC services, about 65 per cent of the nationwide total.

The ministry aims to have 90 per cent of all vehicles registered for ETC this year. 

Source: Vietnam News