Proposal to remove the regulation that BOT stations are 70 km apart

In particular, the notable change compared to the first draft mentioned earlier is that the Drafting Committee has removed the regulation that the distance between toll stations must be at least 70 km apart and there is also no need to consult local people when building the stations.

The circular's drafting committee said that removing the above regulation was in response to opinions from a number of ministries, branches and localities.

Specifically, the People's Committee of Binh Phuoc province said that the 70 km distance regulation causes difficulties for investors and state agencies in the process of negotiating and signing contracts because it directly affects the project's capital recovery time.

The National Assembly's Resolution stipulates that BOT road projects must be new routes and the total investment for a new route of at least 70 km is very large, interest rates fluctuate, and construction time is long, so investors will not participate.

The Ministry of Finance also commented that the 70 km distance regulation is only suitable for projects applying the open collection method (toll collection by turn) that have been implemented before, and is not suitable for closed collection projects (toll collection by km) that are being encouraged to be implemented on many expressways as at present.

Illustration photo.

In addition, according to the monitoring results of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the scientific basis for making regulations on the distance between toll stations is currently unclear.

Agreeing with the removal of the above regulation, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that previously, Circular 159 of the Ministry of Finance stipulated that BOT toll stations must be located at least 70 km apart to prevent stations from being located close together, creating a burden for vehicle owners.

The context at that time forced the above request because there were many BOT projects to renovate the only road, people had no choice.

“However, according to the new regulations, the Ministry of Transport only allows BOT on new routes, parallel to old routes, so the 70 km distance between stations is unnecessary. People already have many choices, setting requirements only adds burden to businesses. If BOT stations are only allowed on new routes, businesses do not need to ask permission from any agency to place them at any location, at the beginning, middle or end of the route,” Mr. Thanh said.

According to the second draft of Circular 49, toll stations only need to ensure the following requirements: Location must be determined during the BOT project preparation period, must ensure harmony of interests of relevant parties (state, investors, local people), must be convenient for toll collection and ensure the ability to recover capital of the BOT project.

Toll stations on national highways must be within the project scope and have the consensus of local agencies (People's Council, People's Committee, National Assembly delegation).

For local roads, toll stations must be within the project scope decided by the competent local state agency after receiving consensus from the Ministry of Transport.