Minister: repairing downgraded roads needed to ensure traffic

A downgraded road section in the national highway 1A (Source: VietnamPlus)

Hanoi (VNA) - Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The has underlined the urgent need to repair dilapidated roads and bridges, saying that if the work is not done well, it could cause mortal danger.

He recalled the lesson when a family in the central province of Phu Yen required criminal prosecution of the unit, which left the road broken and degraded, causing a fatal accident for its relative.  

He said it is necessary to immediately repair roads and bridges that were downgraded, if not, it is at faults for accidents.

“The lesson in Phu Yen forces the transport sector to pay attention to the maintenance work,” he noted.

At a conference held by the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam (DRVN) on January 3, The said the agency is managing a lot of assets such as national highways, expressways and bridges. Therefore, it is necessary to pay heed to maintaining and repairing the road systems, towards avoiding costs for construction.

If the work is done well, it will help ensure safety for people and fully exploit economic efficiency, he noted.

According to the minister, the country has more than 16,000km of roads due for upgrades.

Relevant agencies must be active in assessing the situation to propose and report to the Government to arrange costs for repairs, he said.

On black spots where traffic accidents are common, The said in 2019, the DRVN should direct units to review and eradicate these black spots. Removing the black points must be considered the top priority, he said.

The minister added that the Departments of Transport in provinces and cities nationwide must take the initiative in working with the DRVN to eliminate dangerous black spots.

The transport sector aims to remove all black spots in 2019, he affirmed.

According to DRVN Deputy General Director Nguyen Xuan Cuong, the agency and provincial and municipal departments of transport have inspected the maintenance of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.

After the inspections, many BOT projects were required to overcome problems. Investors of many projects were requested to repair damage to ensure traffic safety.

In 2018, the DRVN decided to stop fee collection at the North Binh Dinh BOT toll station and on the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway because road maintenance was poor, Cuong said.

Persistently solving inadequacies related transport BOT projects

Along with resolving shortcomings related to traffic BOT projects, Minister The said the Ministry of Transport (MoT) will push the deployment of non-stop automatic toll collection, which will bring many benefits as this way is easier to manage than manual fee collection.

It is necessary to be responsible for operating and solving shortcomings in transport BOT projects, he stressed.

For BOT toll stations that have unsuitable locations, The said the Government should be regularly updated on this problem.

“We must persevere with fundamental solutions to solve current problems related to BOT projects, and focus on attracting private investment in developing transport infrastructure,” he said.

The minister highlighted the potential for developing expressway routes to replace overloaded national roads.

People protest a BOT toll station (Source: VietnamPlus)

An important task for BOT projects is non-stop automatic fee collection, The stressed, asking the DRVN to accelerate the application of non-stop fee collection at BOT toll stations on roads. This work has been ordered by the Prime Minister, he added.

Attention should be paid to surveillance work to prevent the misuse of fee collection to take profit, he said, giving the example of the case that occurred on the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway recently.

Regarding automatic toll collection system on roads, DRVN Deputy General Director Nguyen Xuan Cuong said a total of 26 stations have applied non-stop automatic fee collection and seven stations have been piloted on the national highway No. 1, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the section through the Central Highlands), respectively.

To improve the efficiency of non-stop automatic toll collection system to create favourable conditions for vehicle owners, Cuong said the system should be implemented at all toll stations.

Therefore, the Ministry of Transport has instructed automatic toll collection to be used on all toll lanes, he added.

“The DRVN is asking BOT investors to hand over all toll stations to toll collection service providers before March 30, 2019 to start non-stop automatic toll collection,” Cuong said.-VNA