Five North-South expressway sections set to start toll collection after Lunar New Year

The Department for Roads of Vietnam (DRVN) has requested Project Management Units to begin toll collection on  expressway subprojects  that are publicly owned and directly managed by the State. 

According to the DRVN, among the 18 subprojects approved for tolling by the Ministry of Construction, five are currently in a trial phase to evaluate the operational performance of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system.

These subprojects include Mai Son – National Highway 45, National Highway 45 – Nghi Son, Nghi Son – Dien Chau, Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet, and Phan Thiet – Dau Giay. All five are component projects of the North-South Expressway Phase 1 (2017–2020) and have been open to traffic since April 2024.

To meet the requirements for official tolling, the Ministry of Construction has tasked the DRVN and Project Management Units with directing contractors and relevant units to assess the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the toll plaza systems and the expressway's Back-End billing system. This evaluation is being conducted following the completion of testing and inter-line connectivity trials to ensure the system operates stably and synchronously before official launch.

However, the DRVN noted that for several sub-projects, the KPI assessment is expected to last until mid-February at the earliest. Consequently, simultaneous toll collection cannot be implemented within the first month of the year.

Furthermore, the construction of rest stops at some sub-projects has fallen behind schedule. Several stations will not be completed in 2025 as originally planned and have requested construction extensions. Under current regulations, the completion of rest stops is a prerequisite for a project to be eligible for tolling; therefore, these delays have directly impacted plans for early toll collection on these routes.

Due to these obstacles, the five sub-projects currently testing their tolling systems are expected to begin official collection after the Lunar New Year holiday. Meanwhile, several other component projects under the North-South Expressway Phase 2 (2021–2025) are slated to begin tolling this coming March.