Vietnam has planned to invest VND2.15 trillion (US$93 million) in installing traffic video surveillance system on all national highways and expressways.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently approved the project which will be implemented from now until 2025, with a view to detecting and reducing traffic violations.

Center for Traffic Light Control and Coordination under the Traffic Police Department. Photo: Nguyen Huong

The project will be first implemented in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the National Highway 1. For the new highways, the camera system will also be among the standards for highway project acceptance.

The project, financed by state budget fund, private investmentand other funding sources, will be divided into three major components.

In the first component, costing VND850 billion (US$36,853), video surveillance system will be set up in different localities and an operation management center for storing and managing data collected from all the cameraswill be built. The Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security will be the main investor of this component.

The remaining two components will include installing more cameras and upgrading existing ones in the two biggest cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, apart from establishing data management centers. Investment cost for each component will be about VND650 billion (US$28,175).

In addition, the surveillance system software will be added more functions such as warning traffic jam zones and identifying vehicles for supervision such as those that are stolen or involved in hit and run accidents.

Last October, the Traffic Police Department proposed a plan to increase use of video surveillance to enforce the law and reduce physical presence of police on road.

Once the plan takes effect, the burden on the traffic police will be eased.

Vietnam currently has more than 60 expressways and almost 130 national highways, but very few are equipped with surveillance cameras.

With cameras, traffic violations such as over speeding, running a red light or wrong-way driving can be detected accurately, which minimizes conflicts and disagreements between people and policemen.

“Installing cameras and applying fines is not only transparent, but also helps reduce the number of policemen on site,” said the department.