LookAtVietnam – City authorities have allowed the Tien Phong Technology JS company to research and install an automatic car fee collection system in the city center to curb traffic jams.

With over 400,000 cars at present and around 100 new cars daily, HCM City hopes to limit the number of cars by charging fees.

In late July 2009, the city proposed a car fee collection system based on the principle that the more traffic jams, the more fees car owners have to pay.

In October 2008, the city suggested a fee of 10 million dong a year per car, but the Finance Ministry rejected this idea as unfeasible.

Traffic jams are now a big problem in HCM City. In the January-September period, the city recorded 61 big traffic jams of over 30 minutes long. There were up to 12 traffic jams of 4-9 hours long.

HCM City’s chairman Le Hoang Quan said that the traffic jams affect the city’s development negatively.

“The city has nearly 4.2 million vehicles, not mentioning vehicles coming from other provinces,” Quan noted.” “The growth of new vehicles is 10 percent in the first nine months of 2009. While HCM City accounts for 5 percent of the country’s road area, its vehicles account for one third of the country’s total.”

Collecting fees from cars that enter the city’s hub is considered a measure to reduce the number of cars. This plan will be implemented on a six month trial basis.

Besides fees, HCM City has worked out a short-term plan of seven other measures, which are not new, to deal with traffic problems.

VietNamNet/VNE