Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) informed that after 45 days, 23 ETC lanes using Radio Frequency Identification technology were successfully installed in 3 toll plazas of Long Phuoc, National Way No.51, and Dau Giay of HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway. It is expected that this implementation of ETC can reduce the time a vehicle passing a toll collection station, and thus the vehicle quantity to be served can rise by 6-7 times.
In the morning of July 26, the first day to implement ETC on this expressway, traffic congestion was spotted in the direction from HCMC to Long Thanh District of Dong Nai Province. The situation became serious at the expressway entrances of No. 319, National Way No.51, and at Long Phuoc Toll Plaza in Long Thanh District.
This is because the ETC accounts of many drivers are empty, and they must wait from 2-3 hours to pass the station. Driver Le Quoc Hung from Tan Binh District of HCMC, who was stuck on the expressway for many hours, complained that the installation of an ETC card on a vehicle at toll plazas was chaotic and severely annoyed passers-by.
VEC confirmed that traffic congestion happened because some drivers did not have enough money to pay toll via their ETC accounts. All 3 toll plazas on this expressway are still manually collecting toll until August 1 as directed by the Government.
VEC will continue to be set up in the expressways of Da Nang – Quang Ngai and Noi Bai – Lao Cai on July 28. To help needy people to attach an ETC card on their vehicle, VEC holds the event of ‘ETC Card Installation Day’ from July 19-31 at all localities where expressways pass by. Interested people can contact the hotline 0966608386, from 7:00am to 8:00pm each day for the task.
