(NLĐO) - From 0:00 on February 18, the 64-km-long BGLS expressway officially start to collect toll fee after over a month open for free for people.

Low traffic flow

“The toll collection on both BGLS and National Road 1 in the first hours went smoothly, security and order were guaranteed, but vehicle number was much lower than expected”, said Vu Minh Hoang, General Director of Bac Giang - Lang Son BOT Joint Stock Company.

Previously, the competent state agency - People's Committee of Lang Son province issued Decision 264 / QD-UBND dated February 12, 2020 providing on toll price for services of component 1 of BGLS expressway BOT project, section Km1 + 800 - Km108 + 500, combining with strengthening of the National Road 1 section from Km1 + 800 - Km106 + 500 in Bac Giang and Lang Son provinces.

While National Road 1 applies the method of collecting toll by turn, BGLS expressway will apply a closed charge method, vehicle owners pay toll according to the distance used and fee is applied for each type of vehicle.

Accordingly, the starting fee for vehicles less than 12 seats and trucks with a tonnage of less than 2 tons, public buses (group 1 vehicles) on National Road 1 section of Km1 + 800 - Km106 +500 are VND 52,000/turn. The fee for vehicles of type 1 on BGLS expressway is VND 2,100/km; the highest rate applicable to vehicles of group 5 (trucks with a tonnage of 18 tons or more; 40-foot container trucks) is VND 8,100 / km.

Bac Giang - Lang Son expressway

It is noteworthy that this is not the price list that investors proposed to ensure the financial plan of the project.

In the document sent to Lang Son Provincial People's Committee proposing the toll fee of component project 1 (including toll stations of National Road 1 and BGLS expressway), the starting fee that Bac Giang - Lang Son company proposed is VND 62,000/turn for vehicles of group 1 and VND 2,200/km for vehicles of type 1 on National Road 1; VND 8,600/km for vehicles of group 5 traveling on BGLS expressway.

With this proposed fee, the project is lacking more than 2,000 billion dong to pay loan interest in the first years since the expressway operation, which leads to the fact that the principal repayment cash flow cannot be guaranteed, unable to meet the debt repayment term before December 31, 2034 under the credit contract signed.

Mounting difficulties

Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway project was approved by the Government in October 2014 and in April 2015 the Ministry of Transport approved the investment of Bac Giang - Lang Son BOT Joint Stock Company, including 2 Components: the National Road 1 component (strengthening the surface of National Road 1 section at Km1 + 800 - Km106 + 500) with a length of 110km; the Expressway component (Bac Giang - Lang Son expressway section Km45 + 100 - Km108 + 500) with a length of 64km. The total investment of the whole project is 12,189 billion dong.

According to the original contract, the project has 2 toll stations on National Road 1 to payback capital. However, during the implementation, at the request of the People's Committee of Lang Son Province, in order to create a consensus with the people, the parties agreed to remove the toll station at Km24 + 900 on National Road 1; implementing fee reduction for nearly 6,000 vehicles at the toll station Km93 + 160; At the same time, Huu Nghi - Chi Lang expressway to connect with Lang Son and Huu Nghi border gate have not been determined the completion schedule due to capital problem.

The State Audit, banks and other related parties have identified these factors as the main reasons that seriously affect the financial and credit plans of Bac Giang - Lang Son expressway project. “We comprehend with local’s difficulties but with the approved fee, the financial plan for the project will be more unbalanced”, Mr. Hoang worried.

In addition, right in the preparation stage of toll collection, BGLS expressway project has been facing another difficult situation beyond the control of investors.

In particular, due to the effect of Covid-19 epidemic, the number of vehicles travel on National Road 1 and BGLS expressway decreased by about 40%, from an average of 11,000 vehicles/day to around 7,000 vehicles/day and night. This makes the financial plan of the project more difficult.

“With unresolved inadequacies in the financial plan and the uncompleted Chi Lang - Huu Nghi route (the starting and ending points of Bac Giang - Lang Son is still stop at 30km from Ho Chi Minh and about 43km from Huu Nghi border gate), the project is facing many difficulties in returning investment capital”, Mr. Hoang said.

In response to difficult situation of the project, the investor recently sent a document to Lang Son Provincial People's Committee to quickly report to the central agency about the difficulties related to the project's financial plan and have solutions to supplement the state budget capital to support the project like other expressway projects, avoiding the exploitation interruption and aiming for stable and long-term operation.

BGLS expressway toll prices in comparison with of some other projects

Anh Khoa