Self-built watercraft must meet standards to be inspected.

The Ministry of Transport issued Circular 36/BTGT-TT on November 24, 2016, officially effective on June 28, 2017, on national technical regulations on technical supervision and construction of small inland waterway vehicles.

Currently, in many localities, people build their own watercraft based on folk experience, using traditional materials such as bamboo, cement and steel mesh.

Small watercraft include: Vehicles with a length of less than 20 m, main engine with a capacity of 5 to under 50 CV, with an engine carrying 5 - 12 people; folk vehicles (with or without an engine, built according to traditional experience from many generations of the people; carrying goods with a total weight of up to 100 tons, with a total main engine capacity of less than 50 horsepower (internal engine) or less than 100 horsepower (external engine); no deck, carrying capacity from 5 to less than 50 people...).

In addition to modern materials such as aluminum alloy, steel, and fiberglass reinforced plastic for the body of the vehicle, the standard allows the use of traditional materials such as wood, bamboo, and steel mesh cement to build small watercraft. However, to be certified for technical safety inspection, technical requirements according to the standard must be complied with.

Therefore, Circular 36 stipulates that the material used to manufacture bamboo slat vehicles must be old bamboo with the core removed, treated to prevent termites from destroying them and made into strips, 1 mm to 3 mm thick, 10 mm to 30 mm wide. The fence is woven from bamboo strips, into continuous panels, tightly fitting the shape of the vehicle body, the weaving technique must be based on the experience of each locality. For the bamboo slat cement vehicle body, the structure is the same as that of the bamboo slat vehicle, but additional Ø6 steel is placed horizontally and vertically for reinforcement. The distance between the reinforcing steel bars is taken as 100 mm x 100 mm or 150 mm x 150 mm.

The Vietnam Register, its sub-departments and branches, and registration units under the local Department of Transport are responsible for technical supervision of small inland waterway vehicles according to the standards in Circular 36.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper