Urgent expansion of Ho Chi Minh City expressway

According to the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), in 2024, the management, exploitation and operation of VEC's expressways will continue to ensure smooth and safe operation; the non-stop automatic toll collection system (ETC) will operate stably and effectively.

In 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway will welcome 23.2 million vehicles. Photo: Ngoc Han

Traffic volume on expressways, including Noi Bai - Lao Cai, Cau Gie - Ninh Binh, Da Nang - Quang Ngai, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay, reached more than 67.4 million trips, an increase of 11.6% compared to 2023.

With 23.2 million vehicles, the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay expressway continues to have the highest traffic volume among VEC routes, growing by 12.4%.

Meanwhile, the Da Nang – Quang Ngai expressway also maintained the highest growth rate, up 15.5% compared to the previous year, but had the lowest traffic volume, only 2.7 million trips.

The remaining two routes, Cau Gie - Ninh Binh route safely served 22.6 million vehicles, but had the lowest growth rate of 8.3%; Noi Bai - Lao Cai route reached a traffic volume of 18.9 million vehicles, a growth rate of 14.3%.

Ensuring traffic order and safety on expressways has always been a concern of VEC leaders. The work of propagating and disseminating traffic law education, especially ensuring traffic order and safety on expressways, has been focused on and promoted. As a result, the number of traffic collisions, deaths and injuries on VEC expressways has decreased sharply.

However, VEC said that congestion still occurs on some expressways during holidays and weekends due to sudden increases in traffic volume and traffic accidents and collisions, such as: Cau Gie - Ninh Binh route; Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay route. In particular, the section from Km12+000 - Km 23+000 from Long Thanh to Ho Chi Minh City and the section from Km4+000 - Km12+000 from Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh, often experiences congestion, even in the morning and afternoon, posing an urgent need to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh expressway due to overload (full operating capacity) according to the design.

In order to better serve the travel needs of people and ensure traffic order and safety on VEC's expressways during the 2025 Lunar New Year and the 2025 Spring Festival, VEC leaders have directed operating units and related units to proactively develop reasonable traffic regulation and flow plans; guide vehicles to travel safely and smoothly; announce hotline numbers, ensure 24/7 on-call plans to be ready to receive and resolve feedback from people and businesses.

In addition, implementing Decree No. 180/2024/ND-CP dated December 31, 2024 of the Government regulating the policy of reducing value added tax according to Resolution No. 174/2024/QH15 of the National Assembly, VEC continues to extend the policy of reducing 2% VAT on service prices using expressways until June 30, 2025.

Also last year, there were still more than 590,000 vehicles running out of money in their ETC toll accounts on VEC expressways despite the Corporation and operating units having issued warnings and widely publicized campaigns. This is one of the reasons leading to congestion and traffic insecurity when vehicles travel through toll stations at high speeds.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/cap-bach-mo-rong-cao-toc-tp-hcm-long-thanh-196250106171850164.htm