Ministry of Transport proposes 5 options to handle Cai Lay BOT

On April 13, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee said, in the meetingRegarding the Cai Lay BOT project yesterday afternoon, representativeThe Ministry of Transport said it has submitted to the Prime Minister 5 solutions for this toll station.

Option 1: Keep the station location the same, reduce the fare by 30% for all vehicles passing through the station, 4-seat cars from 25,000 VND per trip to 15,000 VND and expand the exemption to households living nearby. The project investment payback period is about 15 years and 9 months. With this option, the State will not need to allocate a budget but will extend the payback period.

Option two, set up another station on the bypass and then collect fees from both stations, reduce the toll price at the station on the national highway by about 30% and keep the old price for the station on the bypass. The advantage of this option is to reduce public reaction, but it will incur costs of about 90 billion VND to build a new station, causing traffic congestion on the national highway and possibly affecting other BOTs.

Option three is to keep the station location and current fares. The Ministry considers this option financially feasible, ensures traffic congestion and does not require budget allocation, but it is still facing opposition from the public as in the past.

With option four, move the Cai Lay BOT toll station to the bypass route. The advantage of this option is that it is agreed upon by the people, but according to estimates, if the station is moved to the bypass route, the State will have to use the budget to compensate about 1,250 billion VND.

The fifth option is to convert the contract form, eliminate the current Cai Lay BOT station, not collect road use service fees and use state capital to pay for services.annual income for investors corresponding to the revenueBOT contract signed. TimeThe repayment period corresponds to the BOT contract implementation period (7 years and 7 months). The payment amount may arise up to more than 2,000 billion VND.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat, the decision on the Cai Lay toll station will affect similar projects. Therefore, the options will be carefully considered to avoid affecting other BOT projects as well as the investment environment, especially the upcoming implementation of the North-South expressway project.

There are currently 88 toll stations nationwide under the BOT model, of which the Ministry of Transport manages 74 stations and the provincial People's Committees manage 14 stations. There are 9 investment projects under the BOT model implemented on old roadbeds and investing in bypasses similar to the BOT project on National Highway 1 in Tien Giang.

Cai Lay BOT toll station is part of the Cai Lay town bypass BOT project and the maintenance and enhancement of National Highway 1, which started in 2014. Of which, the newly invested bypass section is 12 km long, with 7 new bridges, with a total investment of over 1,000 billion VND. The repaired section of National Highway 1 is 26.5 km long with an investment of over 300 billion VND.

The station has been in operation since August 1, 2017, after which many drivers used coins to buy tickets to protest the station's wrong location, so the investor had to continuously collect and release fees from the station many times. Four months later, the Prime Minister decided to stop collecting fees at Cai Lay BOT station, waiting for the Ministry of Transport to present a solution.