HCM City (VNA) - The proposal by the Innovative TechnologyDevelopment (ITD) Corporation to build tollbooths around the Ho Chi Minh Citycentre has met with criticism from experts working in various fields.

The original plan called for tolls to becollected from 6am-9am and 4pm-7pm, with charges of 40,000 VND (1.7 USD) forprivate cars, 30,000 VND for taxis, and 50,000 VND for trucks.

The plan was expected to encourage use of publictransport such as buses and metro lines (now undergoing construction) torelieve traffic congestion in central HCM City.

The city’s People’s Committee, which approvedthe proposal in April, planned to begin construction of 36 automatic tollboothsnext year, but is now reconsidering the plan.

Dr Pham Sanh, a transport specialist, was quotedas saying in Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper thatwhile some countries charged tolls for entering city centres, HCM City was adifferent case because of its road system.

He said that some drivers might only want topass by the city centre instead of entering it, meaning they would have to movealong the small ring road around the city.

The increased concentration of vehicles on suchsmall roads would cause more traffic congestion around the city centre, headded.

Due to the controversy caused by the proposal,the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee on December 13 held a conference inDistrict 1 for different parties to debate the effectiveness of the tollboothplan. Many experts questioned the plan’s viability.

Dong Van Khiem, a member of the VietnamFatherland Front Committee’s Advisory Council, pointed out that the proposaldid not address the rising costs of delivering goods in and out of the citycentre, meaning the price of goods could increase, especially in districts 1and 3.

He said that Vietnam’s public transport neededimprovement as there were few metro lines being built in the city, and buseswere still seen as an unreliable way to travel to work every day.

This would leave motorbikes as the most likelyreplacement for cars if tollbooths are set up. But considering the disregard oftraffic rules by many drivers, the traffic situation may not improve, accordingto Khiem.

Meanwhile, according to Associate Professor NguyenLe Ninh, only six percent of land in the HCM City centre is used for roads(compared to the common ratio of around 20 percent in other countries).

Addressing the lack of roads may be a moreviable solution than the setting up of tollbooths, Ninh said, adding that healso questioned ITD’s method of calculation and how it concluded that deterringcars would help solve traffic congestion in the city centre.

He said that while the toll of 40,000-50,000VND  was not high and likely would not deter him fromusing cars to enter the city’s centre, many taxi drivers and tour buses opposedthe plan.

However, Lam Thieu Quan, chairman of ITD’s boardof directors, said that large trucks transporting goods were only allowed totravel into the city centre from 10pm-5am, which is outside the tollbooths’time frame for toll collection, meaning the cost of goods would not change.

In addition, by limiting the number of carsentering the city centre, more roads would be available for buses, which wouldbe a step in improving the public transport system, according to Quan.

Despite the criticism, Quan said the proposalwas still a good option to relieve traffic, save time, and ultimately boostproductivity.

He noted that the tollbooth plan was only aninitial proposal and that ITD would spend more time revising the plan andgathering more views from different industries and specialists.-VNA