From June 10, the Hanoi People's Committee officially implemented the collection of public opinions on the draft Resolution on collecting highway tolls.
According to the draft, the fee collection applies to vehicles traveling on expressways owned by the entire people and managed by Hanoi City.
Hanoi City has also assigned the Department of Construction to determine the routes and sections that meet the conditions for fee collection. After completing the selection of payment service providers, the Hanoi People's Committee will implement fee collection.
The draft does not specifically state the route to collect tolls, but in Hanoi there are currently two expressways under the direct management of the city, including: the elevated Ring Road 3 (more than 29 km long) and Thang Long Avenue (about 28 km long).
However, when talking to reporters of Lao Dong Newspaper, many people said that this proposal still has many shortcomings.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan (Quoc Oai, Hanoi) expressed concern: "The elevated Ring Road 3 and Thang Long Avenue are expressways with many intersections, if a toll station is built at each intersection, it will lead to a serious risk of congestion, especially on Ring Road 3, which is often congested".
According to Mr. Tuan, the construction of toll stations will be very expensive, leading to high investment and operating costs. Meanwhile, the city budget has its own management mechanism, so it is not necessary to collect by building toll stations.
Mr. Le Xuan Sang (Ba Vi, Hanoi) said that Thang Long Avenue was built with the goal of connecting and developing satellite cities, dispersing people from the city center, and collecting tolls will reduce the effectiveness of this goal.
"Ask me if anyone wants to go back on the only road and have to pay a daily fee?" - Mr. Sang asked.
According to Mr. Sang, the service lane on Thang Long Avenue has been overloaded at some sections. If the highway lane fee is collected, many vehicles will not go to the highway lane but will switch to the service lane to avoid the fee, thereby causing congestion.
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh (former Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association) said that in essence, projects invested with budget capital are not allowed to collect infrastructure fees.
"It is called a highway, but Ring Road 3 is currently located in the inner city of Hanoi, so the toll collection is unreasonable" - Mr. Thanh said.
At the same time, these two routes are only less than 30 km long but have many intersections and are often congested during peak hours, if fee collection is implemented, it will certainly increase congestion.
Dr. Khuong Kim Tao, former Deputy Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said that the collection of capital fees is only for projects with BOT capital. Ring Road 3 has 2 investment phases, the BOT phase is the later phase, when the volume is not much left.
Thang Long Avenue is not a BOT project. If the tolls are collected for the elevated route of Ring Road 3 and Thang Long Avenue Expressway, traffic pressure will pour down to the low Ring Road 3 and the already bustling service road of Thang Long Hanoi Avenue will be even more bustling.
"Normally, people will choose the shortest and easiest way to go. But when economic pressure is heavy, they accept to choose longer, foggier roads to avoid toll stations" - Mr. Tao said.
Mr. Tao emphasized that if the city collects tolls with the purpose of reducing congestion, it will not be feasible and will not bring benefits. This also causes negative consequences for socio-economic development as well as the expansion of people to the inner city.
The city has not yet had a fee collection policy
Regarding this issue, on June 11, speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Tran Huu Bao - Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Construction - affirmed: "Currently, Hanoi City has not yet had a policy of collecting tolls on expressways, but is only developing regulations on the collection rate according to the law. Whether or not to implement fee collection depends on the necessary conditions and policies from the competent authority".
