Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport (MoT) has submitted a proposal to the Vietnamese government to issue a resolution on toll collection for the use of state-invested expressways.
In the proposal, the MoT said that vehicles using expressways will save a certain amount compared to travelling on national highways.
Currently, each vehicle saves about 5,265 VND (US$0.22) per kilometre when using the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh, Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong and Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressways.
The cost-saving is achieved through a 25% reduction in vehicle operating expenses and a 75% reduction in travel time.
Passenger vehicles with 30 seats or more save the most, with an estimated average of 12,348 VND (US$0.51) per kilometre while trucks under two tonnes save 1,974 VND (US$0.08).
For commuters, using expressways will reportedly lead to a 60% reduction in travel time.
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As per Vietnam’s national socio-economic development strategy for the 2021-2030 period, the goal is to have about 5,000km of expressways nationwide by 2030, out of the total planned length of 9,014km.
To achieve this goal, initial investment capital for construction, management, and operation until 2030 is estimated at around 813 trillion VND (more than US$34m).
For the 2021-2025 period, about 393 trillion VND (US$16.5m) is needed to complete 2,043km and commence the construction of 925km of expressways, according to Vietnam’s MoT.
Collecting tolls for expressway use through booths is one of the tools and solutions aimed at enhancing management efforts.
The collected toll fees will contribute to the state budget and be utilised according to Vietnamese regulations on budget allocation, which prioritises investment funds, management, and road maintenance.
It also supports road investment projects through the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract model, especially in cases affected by traffic diversion due to the opening of the expressway routes (compared to the initial terms of project contracts).
The mechanism for sharing toll revenue in Vietnam is based on the investment ratio of both central and local budgets participating in expressway investment projects.
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