About 4,000 owners of vehicles in the northern province of Hưng Yên and Hải Phòng City will receive a fee exemption or reduction when they travel through two Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) toll stations installed along the National Highway No 5 starting August 1. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — About 4,000 owners of vehicles in the northern province of Hưng Yên and Hải Phòng City will receive a fee exemption or reduction when they travel through two Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) toll stations installed along the National Highway No 5 starting August 1, the Việt Nam Infrastructure Development and Finance Investment Joint Stock Company announced on Thursday.

According to a legal document issued on July 4, vehicles with less than 12 seats and trucks with capacity of less than two tonnes belonging to local residents for non-commercial purposes will receive the fee exemption.

Public buses running on fixed routes in the two localities will also receive the fee exemption.

Organisations and agencies located in areas of the province and the city near the toll stations will get a fee reduction of between 45 and 50 per cent.  

The areas in Hưng Yên Province eligible for fee exemption and reduction include the communes of Lạc Hồng, Trưng Trắc, Đình Dù, Minh Hải and Như Quỳnh Town in Văn Lâm District; the communes of Giai Phạm, Nghĩa Hiệp, Đồng Than and Bần Yên Nhân Town in Mỹ Hào District; and the communes of Nghĩa Trụ and Vĩnh Khúc in Văn Giang District.

In Hải Phòng, the areas include communes of Lê Thiện, An Hưng, Đại Bản, Tân Tiến, An Hồng, Hồng Phong, An Hoà, Nam Sơn, Bắc Sơn and Lê Lợi in An Dương District and Quán Toan Ward in Hồng Bàng District.

Nguyễn Văn Điều, head of the BOT toll station in Hưng Yên Province’s Như Quỳnh Town, said an additional 1,000 vehicle-owners in the province were finishing their files according to regulations to receive an exemption and reduction in the future.

A representative of the company said the two toll stations’ operator was ordered to update the list of vehicles receiving the fee exemption and reduction every three months.

The decision on the fee exemption and reduction came after many local drivers used small notes to pay the fee at the toll station in Hưng Yên Province in order to slow traffic to a crawl and show their opposition to the tolls in late 2017.

The drivers protested because they thought that the toll station was located on the National Highway No 5 to collect fees to pay for the Hà Nội–Hải Phòng Expressway project was inappropriate. They also said the fee was too high, affecting the lives of local drivers and business activities of local transport companies.

National Highway No 5, connecting Hà Nội with the ports of the north-eastern coastal city of Hải Phòng, is also a part of the Asian Highway AH14 passing through three countries – Việt Nam, China and Myanmar. Drivers have to pay a fee from VNĐ40,000–180,000 (US$1.7-7.7) each time they pass through the highway.

It is estimated that about 15,000-16,000 vehicles run through the highway daily. — VNS