No you can’t close the road, Transport Ministry tells investor

The National Route 6 Hoa Lac – Hoa Binh Ltd, which built the expressway connecting the Hoa Lac area in southern Hanoi with northern Hoa Binh Province, had said that it would stop allowing vehicles to run on the road starting April 15.

It had built the road under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model, but has not been allowed to collect tolls from vehicles using the road since it opened in October 10 last year.

Tolls should have been applied since November 1 as stated in the contract, but as the company hasn’t received permission to collect the tolls, it has missed out on VND28.9 billion ($1.24 million) in collection, as of February.

The Ministry of Transport said that the reason the investor has not been allowed to collect tolls is that it has not paid the remaining VND7.8 billion ($335,179) to locals for land acquisition. The company needs to be responsible in completing the terms of the contract so that it can start collecting tolls, the ministry said.

The Hoa Lac – Hoa Binh project started in May 2014 with an investment of VND2.72 trillion ($116.92 million). The expressway reduces travelling time from Hanoi to Hoa Binh by half to one hour.

The investor is allowed to collect tolls from two booths for over 27 years to recover its investment, according to the contract signed with the transport ministry.