Protest against unfair Ha Tinh road toll continues

People in Ky An Commune, Ha Tinh Province, continue driving trucks and cars with banners through Cau Rac Toll Booth to protest against the fees.

People in Ky An Commune, Ha Tinh Province, continue driving trucks and cars with banners through Cau Rac Toll Booth to protest against the fees.

The banners, which highlight opposition for road tolls on a privately-run build-operate-transfer (BOT) road locals claim they don’t even use, are put on over 50 vehicles that go through and around Cau Rac Toll Booth on May 4. Some drivers use small banknotes to pay the fee to protest and deliberately slow traffic.

Taxi driver Nguyen Van Tuan said, "I still drive passengers to Ha Tinh City and have to pay VND70,000 (USD3). We don't use the BOT road but we still have to pay anyway. The location of the booth doesn’t make sense at all."

  

Cau Rac Toll Booth

Tran Van Toan, a local in Ky Anh Commune also said there should be a policy to protect people that don’t use the BOT road. He also said that it was extraordinarily unfair to place the toll booth 20km away from the new road. Travellers who use the new road may not have to pay the fee but those who don't must.

Other people agreed that the location of the toll booth is absurd and they will continue to protest as long as it's there. Multiple protests have been held since late March to oppose against the toll.

 

 

Cars with banners opposing against Cau Rac toll

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Vinh Thanh, head of police force in Cam Xuyen District said they had opened another gate to clear the congestion and suggested that the residents should file complaints and petition to solve the problem.

The Ministry of Transport already sent documents demanding no fees should be enforced for drivers with households registration certificates in Cam Xuyen and Ky Anh District when passing through Cau Rac Toll Booth.