HCMC vice chairman Nguyen Thanh Tai has ordered HCMC Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company to immediately stop collecting toll at Hanoi Highway toll station.

HCMC vice chairman Nguyen Thanh Tai has ordered HCMC Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company to immediately stop collecting toll. (Photo: SGT)

CII had paid some VND1 trillion for the right to collect toll fees from vehicles using Dien Bien Phu Street in the city’s east and Kinh Duong Vuong Street in the west. The company built the Hanoi Highway toll station in 2001 to recover its investment.

However, many transport companies of the HCMC Association of Goods Transport have been complaining that they pay the road fees while they mostly do not use Dien Bien Phu Street. They were discontented that many of their container trucks only traveled between Cat Lai Port in District 2 of HCMC and Binh Duong or Dong Nai Province through the station.

In the middle of September, the transport association sent a complaint to the HCMC Inspectorate and the Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association, alleging that CII had been charging tolls incorrectly even before the moving of its toll station from District 2 to District 9, causing great losses to the transport companies.

According to a statement, Tai asked the director of the HCMC Transport Department to make a clear and explicit explanation to local media and the transport association to confirm the legal basis on allowing CII to relocate the toll station from a location near the Saigon Bridge to a new site near the Rach Chiec Bridge in August.

Tai also asked the HCMC Department of Public Security to collect evidence to handle several truck drivers causing serious traffic jams at the toll station on September 30 and November 2.

Thai Van Chung, general secretary of the HCMC Transport Association, told the Daily that the association would send a proposal today, November 10, to the city government asking for measures to return collected fees to not only container trucks using Road 25B to Cat Lai Port, but also to trucks passing the station from other streets in District 2 including Tran Nao and Le Van Luong streets.

According to a source of the Daily, under the latest order from vice chairman Tai, CII late this week will install a small station on Road 25B to Cat Lai Port to recognize vehicles that need to be refunded toll fees.

VietNamNet/SGT