Traffic congestion in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s Departmentof Transport has proposed investing 250 billion VND (10.8 million USD) tobuild 34 automatic toll booths to prevent traffic congestion duringpeak hours in the city centre.
At a recent meeting, the consulting council for HCMCity urban transport gathered feedback and reached a consensusto support the project, saying that only vehicles entering thedowntown area should be charged.
If the project is approved, the Saigon RiverTunnel Management Centre will develop the project.
The project, which will be carried out inthe 2019-2021 period, would include 34 toll booths in districts 1 and3 and in areas bordering districts 5 and 10.
The locations of the toll booth would form a'ring' in the city centre and would include streets Hoang Sa, Nguyen PhucNguyen, Cach Mang Thang 8, Ba Thang Hai, Le Hong Phong, Ly Thai To, Nguyen VanCu, Vo Van Kiet and Ton Duc Thang.
The booths will only collect fees from carsentering the city centre. Each car will be equipped with an automatic tollcollection chip provided by the VETC electronic toll collection company atthe toll booths.
Toll fares will be automaticallydeducted from the vehicle owner's account.
The fees will range from 40,000 VND (1.72 USD)to 60,000 VND (2.57 USD) during peak hours from 6am to 9am and4pm to 7pm.
Ambulances, police cars, fire trucks and publicbuses entering the area will not be charged. Taxis and registered carswill pay 75 percent of the fee.
The booths will use Radio FrequencyIdentification technologies combined with an automatic number platerecognition to identify the number of vehicles entering the city centre.
These technologies help the toll boothsensure non-stop multi-lane toll collections with a capacity of 1,800cars per hour on one lane.
The project is expected to reduce the number ofprivate autos entering the centre by 49 percent in the first year,while the demand for public transport is predicted to rise by 9 to 15percent.-VNA
VNA
