There are 3 North-South Expressway projects that will remove entry barriers at toll stations.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy, the ministry has approved in principle the three component projects of the North-South Expressway in the East phase 2017-2020, including Dien Chau-Bai Vot, Nha Trang-Cam Lam and Cam Lam-Vinh Hao, following the model of no barriers at the input, barriers at the output, and no mixed toll lanes.

Of the three expressway projects above, the 49km Nha Trang-Cam Lam Expressway (Khanh Hoa) passing through Khanh Hoa province has been completed, while the two sections Dien Chau-Bai Vot (Nghe An, Ha Tinh), Cam Lam-Vinh Hao (Binh Thuan) are still under construction, expected to be completed in 2024. These are projects invested under the public-private partnership (PPP) method.

Specifically, the 50km Dien Chau-Bai Vot Expressway will be implemented for both the on-route and tunnel sections, including all activities such as survey, construction design; equipment supply and installation, software integration, training and technology transfer.

With two component projects of Nha Trang-Cam Lam and Cam Lam-Vinh Hao Expressways, Elcom Technology-Telecommunications Joint Stock Company was selected as the unit to deploy the intelligent traffic system.

Nha Trang-Cam Lam Expressway will be invested in an intelligent traffic system with a total contract value of nearly 350 billion VND, equipped with a comprehensive intelligent traffic system, including a monitoring and operating system on the route and tunnel, a non-stop toll collection system, a communication system, traffic cameras, etc.

Dien Chau-Bai Vot Expressway is implementing a comprehensive intelligent traffic system including both the on-route and tunnel sections with a total value of over 200 billion VND, including carrying out all activities such as surveying, design and construction; providing equipment installation, software integration and training, technology transfer from the management and operation center, traffic surveillance cameras, vehicle detection, electronic signs, radios, switchboards or transmission systems, power supply, etc.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport also proposed a roadmap for implementing the non-stop toll collection system (ETC) in 3 phases, of which phase 1 will be implemented from 2016-2023, toll stations will still have barriers, accounts will have enough money, and new barriers will be opened.

Phase 2 will be implemented from 2024-2025, with no more barriers and single-lane vehicles freely passing through toll stations.

Phase 3 from 2026 onwards, at the toll station only the gantry price with the toll collection device mounted above will be maintained. Multi-lane vehicles will freely circulate through the toll station.

Referring to this issue, Mr. To Nam Toan, Head of the Department of Environmental Science, Technology and International Cooperation (Vietnam Road Administration) said that technically it is completely possible to remove barriers, however, to collect non-stop tolls and move to the barrier-free phase, there are still many legal problems, especially sanctions for post-payment, especially when collecting inter-route tolls with other component projects on the North-South Expressway.

According to Mr. Ho Trong Vinh, Deputy General Director of ETC Automatic Toll Collection Company Limited, the most complicated problem when collecting inter-route tolls is debt collection, because without barriers, vehicles without money in their accounts can still circulate through many projects.

“To move to the stage of free multi-lane vehicles, removing barriers requires a debt collection mechanism for vehicles that do not have or do not have enough money in their traffic accounts. Only by having a debt collection mechanism can barriers at toll stations be removed,” said Mr. Vinh.

A representative of the Vietnam Expressway Administration said that over the period of non-stop toll collection operation, for adjacent expressways such as Nha Trang-Cam Lam and Cam Lam-Vinh Hao, toll stations should not be installed on the main route between the two expressways, but should be organized in a closed, interconnected manner and revenue sharing similar to what is currently being applied on the Phap Van-Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway section.

Previously, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang requested the Vietnam Road Administration to immediately conduct research and develop a project to collect tolls using satellite and GSP technologies to serve toll collection on the Eastern North-South Expressway and other expressways.

This is a solution applied by many countries such as Singapore and some European countries to limit vehicles entering the inner city. When there is no barrier, the solution of collecting inner city fees is feasible, avoiding traffic congestion.