Mr. Nguyen Van Tien in Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, went to five inspection centers in Hanoi, Hung Yen and Bac Ninh provinces to have his car inspected. But he had to sleep in the car while queuing for his turn.

At 6 am on January 11, he came to the vehicle registration center in Cau Giay District, Hanoi and saw a long line of people queuing for registration. He decided to go to the registration center in Van Giang District in the neighboring province of Hung Yen.

Once again seeing a long queue of people, he went to the registration center in Long Bien district in Hanoi and again moved to the center in Gia Lam district in Hanoi.

“All the centers were overcrowded, but I didn’t want to wait, so I drove my car to the center in Tu Son City in Bac Ninh province,” he told VietNamNet.

But this was also full of people waiting. “I had no other choice than to return to Hanoi in the afternoon,” Tien said.

Finally, he decided to return to the first center, with a blanket and some food. At 5 pm on the same day, he joined the long queue of people.

“A car driver told me that he had been waiting since noon on Jan 11,” he said. “More and more cars came at night. By 1 am January 12, there had been 60 cars waiting." His patience was awarded: he finally had his car registered.

Nguyen To An, deputy head of the Vietnam Register, said he had never seen people queueing up so long for registration.

Nguyen To An, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Register, said he has never witnessed people having to queue up so long for registration before.

In an effort to ease the congestion, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) proposed that the Ministry of Public Security allow to temporarily reopen registration centers.

“Under the laws, these centers are subjects to investigation so they cannot operate. However, the violators are people, not machines. Therefore, we think that it would be better to reopen the centers,” An said.

If the proposal is approved, four centers will be reopened, employing 80 officers from HCM City.

N. Huyen