VietNamNet Bridge – Vehicle owners pay a surprisingly low VND6,000 toll per kilometer on the Noi Bai – Lao Cai Highway, which opened to traffic several days ago.

The 245-kilometer highway, including 98 kilometers on a two-lane stretch and 197 kilometers on a four-lane section, links Hanoi and Lao Cai province in the north. It was built with investment capital of $1.45 billion, a figure that VEC (the Vietnam Expressway Corporation), the investor, finds “surprisingly cheap”.

It cost VND9 trillion to build the 50-kilometer four- to six-lane Cau Gie – Ninh Binh Highway in the north, with the investment rate of $8 million per kilometer.

The HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Highway in the south has an investment rate of $18 million per kilometer. Meanwhile, the 62-kilometer HCM City – Trung Luong Highway “gobbled up” VND10 trillion.

Vietnamese experts said at a conference held recently that the investment rate was about $8.1 million for every kilometer of highway in the 2005-2010 period. Since 2010, investors have had to pay $2 million more for each kilometer.

Meanwhile, in China, each kilometer of road costs $8.7 million in the lowlands and $9.7 million in areas with unfavorable conditions of terrain.

Therefore, the toll of VND1.22 million set by the investor for over 18-ton vehicles travelling on the 245 kilometers of the highway is believed to be unprecedentedly high in the history of Vietnam transportation.

However, analysts pointed out that the fee is “reasonable” if considering the transportation costs in accordance with the length of travel.

The vehicles on the Lao Cai – Hanoi Highway have to pay a toll of VND6,000 per kilometer. The fee is equal to that applied to the Gie – Ninh Binh Highway and lower than the fee applied on the HCM City – Trung Luong route, at VND8,000 per kilometer.

The fee is also lower in comparison with the fee for the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay route. Twenty kilometers of this highway have been completed and put into operation since the beginning of the year, and vehicle owners have to pay VND8,000 per kilometer.

A senior executive of VEC said that it was more economical to travel on the Lao Cai – Hanoi Highway, because of shorter distance and time, higher safety and lower vehicle depreciation.

The Chair of the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association, Nguyen Van Thanh, commented that it is the travelers, not the state management agencies or the investor, who were right about the Lao Cai – Hanoi Highway being a good choice for enterprises that want to lower expenses.

The Ministry of Transport and the Cuu Long Infrastructure Investment Corporation once refused enterprises’ proposal to lower the toll for the HCM City – Trung Luong Highway, saying that the VND8,000 per kilometer fee was reasonable. As a result, enterprises decided to travel on Highway No 1 instead.

Le Dinh Tien, chair of the Hai Phong City Transport Association, the owner of a container transport firm with over 100 vehicles, also noted that the benefits of the Hanoi – Lao Cai Highway are enough to justify the fee.