“Painful at the damaged roads caused by overloaded vehicles”

(Baonghean) -On the afternoon of July 16, Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky was the first person to speak at the question and answer session at the 9th session of the Provincial People's Council. The issue of traffic accidents, encroachment on sidewalks and traffic safety corridors; oversized and overloaded trucks destroying roads, affecting traffic safety and people's lives have "heated up" the parliament.

Difficult to handle overloaded vehicles due to sophisticated driver response

The explanation of Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky said that in the first 6 months of 2013, in Nghe An province, there were 171 road and railway traffic accidents, killing 120 people and injuring 149 people, of which 105 cases had consequences ranging from serious to extremely serious.

There are many reasons, but the main reason is: Due to the fault of the vehicle driver. Regarding the problem of encroachment on the traffic safety corridor, Mr. Ky said that the People's Committees at the district and commune levels have not properly implemented the Government's direction that "The Chairman of the People's Committee of the district must be responsible for enforcing and demolishing illegal constructions on the national highway corridor"; at the same time, the People's Committees at the commune and district levels have not properly performed their responsibilities in managing and protecting road traffic infrastructure.



Seriously degraded road in Ky Son

Regarding the alarming situation of overloaded and oversized vehicles damaging traffic works, affecting people's lives and potentially causing accidents, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky said that dealing with this problem is difficult because drivers are looking for many sophisticated ways to deal with it, while the authorities do not have support vehicles, temporary vehicle holding yards and offloading services are limited, there are no weighing stations or fixed checkpoints; sanctions are not strong enough to deter and there are also times when the authorities are not really determined and are lax.

Providing solutions for the coming time, Mr. Ky emphasized: First of all, it is necessary to strengthen the dissemination, propaganda and education of the Road Traffic Law and guiding documents under the Law in a comprehensive manner so that all organizations and individuals can understand and implement it. Along with that, it is necessary to seriously implement regulations on managing transportation activities.

Recently, the Department has also advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a decision to restrict some routes for trucks over 2 tons, over 10 tons and some passenger cars with 16 seats or more in Vinh City; Mechanism to support investment in the construction of transport yards in Nghe An province to attract investors in the construction of yards in localities.



Oversized and overloaded vehicles in Dien Chau

Advise on placing signs prohibiting passenger vehicles on some routes of Vinh City; coordinate in advising on planning reasonable rest stops on national highways so that drivers can rest and check their vehicles. On the part of the Department of Transport, it is also responsible for strengthening the inspection of journey monitoring equipment, resolutely handling according to regulations for vehicles and drivers who violate the regulations through recorded journey monitoring equipment. Directing transport business units in the area to strengthen management of drivers, service staff on vehicles, etc.

Stop the "kidnapping and abandoning the disk" situation

After the explanation of Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky, delegate Dinh Thi An Phong (Nghi Loc) asked: What is the reason for the lack of awareness of compliance, even contempt for the law and law enforcement officers of some traffic participants? Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky affirmed that it was due to the ineffective propaganda work. Part of the responsibility for this situation lies with the transport sector. Traffic laws have now been introduced in schools, but awareness among many people in society is still limited.



Threshing rice between the railway and Highway 1

Next, delegate Le Thi Nhan (Dien Chau) raised the issue of handling violations of encroachment on the roadside and traffic safety corridor, why did the situation of "kidnapping and abandoning the disk" occur? Who is responsible? Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky said: Decree 11-ND/CP of the Government clearly stipulates that the management and protection of road traffic infrastructure and traffic safety corridors is the responsibility of the People's Committee at the district level, which directly manages, protects, and handles cases of encroachment and re-encroachment of the corridor... The Traffic Inspectorate is only responsible for inspecting and detecting violations, then reporting to local authorities for coordination in handling and clearance. The regulations are like that, but there are cases where local authorities have been reported, but the coordination is not smooth, so the efficiency is not high, especially after handling violations. The main responsibility in ensuring traffic safety corridors is the local government. The Department of Transport will continue to coordinate with localities to handle this issue.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky also answered frankly the question that delegate Vu Thi Thanh Huong (Tan Ky) was concerned about regarding solutions for the management of vehicles participating in the transport business in Nghe An? According to Mr. Ky, to handle this type of violation, the industry has also proactively worked with 120 transport businesses in the area. At this meeting, the businesses also admitted to overloading, oversizing and carrying passengers beyond regulations in the past. The Transport industry also hopes that the press and television will join in promoting and handling this issue. We are recommending that the Ministry of Transport and the Government apply some stronger solutions to hope for a better situation. More than anyone else, the Transport industry is very saddened by the damaged roads caused by overloaded vehicles.

Attracting investment is a matter of "survival"

Before the question and answer session, the People's Council held a discussion session in the hall. In turn, the heads of the departments of Planning - Investment; Agriculture - Rural Development; Natural Resources - Environment; Finance; Home Affairs; Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; and the Provincial Tax Department directly explained and clarified many issues that the delegates of the Provincial People's Council were interested in.

In the field of basic construction investment and investment attraction, besides affirming positive results, many delegates also mentioned the shortcomings in this field, the main cause of which lies in the administrative reform stage, cumbersome procedures, the way of working in some stages, the sector is still bureaucratic, especially the department directly receiving and processing investment procedures. Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Do affirmed; “Attracting investment is currently a matter of “survival” for us! The good news is that the province has just approved the project to improve provincial competitiveness and the sectors and districts have joined in. The sectors have also seen their “commanding” role and are proactive in this issue”.



Checking a transformer station in Vinh City.

Mr. Do also said: Administrative procedures at the provincial level cannot be "provoked" but only implemented according to regulations, but the implementation process requires strong direction from the "leaders" of the sectors, that is, supervision is required to prevent subordinates from prolonging the time, including the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment. The establishment of a provincial-level "one-stop shop" located at the Department of Planning and Investment and related departments and sectors with permanent representatives there and operating through software is currently relatively good, initially recognized by businesses as well as people.

Also at the discussion session, answering a series of concerns about high agricultural production inputs, difficult-to-sell post-harvest agricultural products, and low production efficiency of the people from delegates Le Van Cam, Tran Quoc Chung, Phan Van Tuyen..., Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Ngoc Sy said: In recent years, our province has also focused on transforming the crop structure, introducing new high-quality varieties into production, thereby increasing income per unit area, increasing income for farmers. Every year at the Provincial People's Council meetings, the Department has also actively advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council to issue many agricultural development policies and mechanisms, such as supporting new varieties; large-scale field policies, land consolidation policies..., all with the ultimate goal of solving difficulties for farmers. The province is also continuing to direct the expansion of model fields and high-income fields to, on that basis, associate with processing and create output for products through the linkage of "4 houses".



Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Duy Viet explained the issues questioned by delegates.

Mr. Vo Duy Viet - Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment also explained and clarified the solutions related to sand and gravel mining. Since the end of last year until now, the province has only issued 14 licenses for stone and sand mining, in addition, the province has also revoked 7 licenses, forcing 8 licenses to be returned to organizations and individuals who violated the law. The province is also focusing on handling illegal mining, at the same time speeding up so that some organizations and individuals are qualified to be licensed at 42 surveyed and planned locations. There are some good locations but not in the planning, so they must definitely be finalized. The time to grant licenses through the steps prescribed by law, including the time for exploration, this exploration time depends mainly on the organizations and individuals operating in this field. We think that it will take at least 2 to 3 months for the surveyor to complete according to the provisions of the law.

Need to come up with a solution

Through the mass media, many voters have been interested in and followed the question and answer session of the Director of the Department of Transport. Mr. Trinh Van Nha - a voter of Thanh Duc commune, Thanh Chuong district expressed: “Basically, I agree with the question and answer session of the Director of the Department of Transport and hope that in the coming time, the traffic accident situation in the area will be significantly reduced. However, I am concerned that on the roads, oversized and overloaded vehicles are still operating openly, causing danger to road users and are the basic cause of rapid deterioration of the roads. The re-encroachment of traffic safety corridors still occurs frequently, the work of clearing traffic safety corridors in many localities is still "movement" in nature, with low efficiency. We hope that in the coming time, with its functions, the Department of Transport will coordinate with local authorities and functional branches to thoroughly handle the above phenomena, contributing to ensuring traffic safety in the province.

Mr. Nguyen Nam Phuong - Tan Hong block, Nghia Dan town reflected: "Nghia Dan is a raw material area for sugarcane, industrial crops, construction materials..., convenient traffic so the traffic volume of trucks is quite high. For profit, some vehicles disregard traffic safety regulations and increase the size to increase the quantity of transported raw materials. The above violations have affected traffic safety and order, accidents caused by oversized and overloaded vehicles are increasing but have not been completely resolved". According to voter Dang Canh Nha - Hamlet 1 - Nghi Phu - Vinh City, some of the answers and questions of the Director of the Department of Transport need to be further clarified, that is, the management of intra-provincial passenger transport still has many shortcomings and the responsibility first belongs to the transport sector and the police". Mr. Nha cited the reality: "A 16-seat passenger car on the Vinh - Con Cuong route sometimes has 20-30 people on the car but the authorities do not check or punish. Or even the quality of Nghe An's buses still has many limitations, the management of Vinh Bus Station still has many problems... Those situations require stronger involvement of the transport sector and the police."

Voter Vi Van Lit - in Thach Giam commune, Tuong Duong district shared: "In the first 6 months of the year, traffic accidents increased in both the number of cases and the number of deaths. That raises questions for the relevant agencies to assess the quality of vehicles, the quality of drivers, driving schools, and output results.

During the process of monitoring the question-and-answer session, voters in many localities noted that in some aspects, the leaders of the Department of Transport admitted shortcomings and problems, frankly accepted responsibility and proposed solutions to overcome them in the coming time. Although the quality of answering questions has been improved, the solutions proposed are not very specific. In addition, some questions have not gone into the core issues, and have not fully recognized the responsibility of elected representatives in supervising and urging each locality where they are running for election and working and living...

PV Group