The Government issued Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP on December 7, 1999, detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on protection of traffic works with regard to land road traffic works. In furtherance of Article 44 of this Decree, the Ministry of Communications and Transport hereby issues a Circular, guiding in detail a number of points as follows:

I. LAND ROAD TRAFFIC WORK PROTECTION CORRIDOR LIMITS

The land road traffic work protection corridor (called land road protection corridor for short) shall cover sections on both sides, in the air and underground of the land road traffic works, which are prescribed to ensure the durability of the works, the safety of communications and transport activities as well as to create favorable conditions for the upgrading, improvement and exploitation management of land roads.

1. The land road protection corridor shall be determined depending on the road�s technical grades, under the long-term planning decided by the competent agencies (called planned road grades for short), the width of the corridor to each side of roads outside urban areas shall be specified for each road type and grade as follows:

- 20m for expressway (TCVN 5729-97).

- 20m for roads of grades 1 and 2 (TCVN 4054-85) or of grades 80 and 60 with 4-6 lanes (TCVN 4054-1998).

- 15m for roads of grade 3 (TCVN 4054-85) or of grades 80 and 60 with 2 lanes (TCVN 4054-1998).

- 10m for roads of grade 4 (TCVN 4054-85) or of grades 60 and 40 with 2 lanes (TCVN 4054-1998).

- 10m for roads of grade 5 (TCVN 4054-85) or of grades 40 and 20 with 1-2 lanes (TCVN 4054-1998).

- For the inter-village and inter-commune roads, such corridors shall be stipulated by the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities (referred collectively to as the provincial People�s Committees), based on the specific conditions of the localities, but the protection corridor to each side must not be smaller than the width of the road. The width of a road is calculated as being equal to the horizontal distance between two edges of the road.

- Those plants, factories, schools and service establishments, whose operations cause adverse impacts on the traffic environment and the durability of the land road traffic works must be located away from the outer limits of the protection corridors for distance long enough to ensure such works� safety as prescribed by law.

- The width of the protection corridors for bridges shall depend only on such bridges� location, length and width.

2. For urban thoroughfares, of which the planning has already been approved by the competent agencies, the width of the protection corridors shall be the width of the pavements or the width of the construction boundary. For roads running across population areas, which have not yet been planned, such corridors shall be calculated as for the roads outside the urban areas.

3. For roads running in parallel with rivers and/or canals which have been exploited for waterway transport of which the protection corridors are overlapping, the land road protection corridor limits shall be calculated from top of the banks (upper edges) of such rivers or canals to the roads.

4. For roads running in parallel with railways, of which the corridors are overlapping, the boundary between two protection corridors shall be determined on the basis of non-encroachment upon each other�s structures of railway and land road works, more concretely as follows:

- In cases where the width of the common protection corridor is larger than 5m, priority shall be given to the full calculation of the protection corridor of the railway and the remaining width shall be land road protection corridor, which, however must not overlap such road bed.

- In cases where the width of the common protection corridor is smaller than or equal to 5m, the boundary between the two protection corridors shall be the middle point of the common protection corridor.

- In cases where the width of the common protection corridor is very small or it is the ditch for water drainage only, the boundary between the two corridors shall be the foot of the road floor or the line overlapped by the roof of the road talus and the foot of the higher road floor.

5. In principle, the underground protection corridors for land road works are unlimited. In cases where it is compulsory to allow the construction of underground works in the land road protection corridors, it must be particularly determined by the competent agencies on the basis of not causing traffic unsafety and affecting the management, repair and upgrading activities of the land road sector as well as the exploitation management of the underground work-possessing branch. When the land road sector has the need to upgrade, expand and/or repair the road, which affect the protection and exploitation of the underground works, the underground work-managing agencies shall have to remove such works within 15 days as from the date of receiving the notice thereon and bear all costs thereof.

6. For the land road traffic works which have been already upgraded and improved but fail to meet their planned grades in the initial phrase, the protection corridors shall still be determined on the basis of the planned grades. If the width of the areas to both sides of the roads already cleared by the project owner when upgrading and improving such roads in order to ensure safety for construction and exploitation management is smaller than the width of the protection corridor for roads of the planned grade, it shall not be considered the width of road protection corridor. For land roads with their boundary already marked, of which the width of the protection corridors determined under Decree No. 203/HDBT is larger than the width determined under Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP, the marked width shall be kept in tact. In cases where the width of the protection corridors determined under Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP is larger than the width determined under Decree No. 203/HDBT, such corridors shall be re-determined and the boundary remarked according to the provisions of Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP.

Inside the land road protection corridors, it is not allowed to expand or build constructions such as offices; production, business and service establishments; houses; electricity transmission lines� All the constructions already built within the land road protection corridors, which cause harms to the safety of such roads as well as the safety for land road communications and transport activities, must be dismantled immediately; in cases where such constructions have not yet exerted much impacts, and their removal is costly and wasteful, they shall be temporarily kept in tact, but the constructions owners must make commitments with the local People�s Committees and the land road-managing agencies that they shall strictly abide by the Ordinance on Protection of Traffic Works and remove them immediately when so requested. For the constructions built before 1982 and located within the land road protection corridors under Decree No. 203/HDBT as well as those built before 1999 and located in the additionally expanded areas between the land road protection corridors under Decree No. 203/HDBT and the land road protection corridors under Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP, when they are removed for the road upgrading and expansion as requested, the compensation shall be considered and settled according to law.

7. In special circumstances where the width of the protection corridors need to be stipulated differently from the prescriptions of the Decree, Vietnam Land Road Administration shall suggest its opinions to the Minister of Communications and Transport for the latter to report it to the Prime Minister before making decision thereon. Particularly for inter-village and inter-commune roads, they shall be decided by the provincial People�s Committees.

II. LAND ROAD TRAFFIC WORK PROTECTION RESPONSIBILITIES

In order to maintain safety in exploitation and extend the durability of land road traffic works, all domestic and foreign organizations and individuals shall, when operating on Vietnam�s land roads, have to protect them. If any organizations and/or individuals violate the regulations on land road protection, they shall, depending on the seriousness of their violations, be handled according to the current law provisions.

The People�s Committees of all levels; the people�s police forces and the traffic inspection forces shall, within the scope of their respective functions, tasks and powers, be competent to handle violations of regulations on land road traffic work protection, committed by organizations and/or individuals.

1. Organizations and/or individuals licensed to invest in the construction of and exploit specialized roads, roads in form of BOT and BT, shall have to protect such roads throughout the construction and exploitation duration as prescribed by law.

2. Investors and contractors for various road sections under upgrading, improvement or repair projects shall have to manage and protect such road sections throughout the construction duration, from the time of receiving the road sections to the time of hand-over to the management and exploitation units.

The investors shall, when handing over the completed roads to the management units, have to hand over all the dossiers on ground clearance, ground clearance markers and land road corridor limit marks (road boundary markers), if any.

3. All planning of urban areas, export processing zones, industrial parks and other projects, which relate and affect the safety of land roads must be participated by the competent land road-managing agencies right at the stage of survey for project elaboration and preparation for approval.

4. For the projects which must be built inside the land road protection corridors, or which are built outside the land road protection corridors but affect the safety of such land roads, the project owners must obtain consents of the competent land road-managing agencies right when elaborating such projects and be allowed to construct the project�s items which affect the safety of land road traffic only when being granted construction permits by Vietnam Land Road Administration (with regard to national highways) or the provincial/municipal Communications and Transport Services (with regard to local roads).

5. The People�s Committees at various levels shall have to perform the function of State management over the protection of land road traffic works, guide and direct their attached land road-managing units to perform the management over the exploitation and repair of land roads, inspect and check damage; fight the encroachment and grabbing of and protect land roads.

6. The Land Road Management Departments, the provincial/municipal Communications and Transport Services and Communications and Public Works Services shall have to direct their attached land road-managing units to assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with land administration agencies and People�s Committees of the districts, towns and provincial cities (referred collectively to as district-level People�s Committees), as well as People�s Committees of communes, wards and townships (referred collectively to as commune-level People�s Committees) in measuring and fixing the land road boundary markers and handing over such markers to the district- and commune-level People�s Committees, which shall serve as basis for the management and use of land in the land road protection corridors in accordance with the provisions of law. The road boundary markers� specifications and methods of fixing road boundary markers shall comply with the provisions in Articles 71, 72 and 73 of the "Regulation on Land Road Signs", issued together with Decision No. 5058/QD/KH-KT of December 25, 1997 of the Minister of Communications and Transport.

7. The commune-level People�s Committees shall assume the prime responsibility, under the direction and inspection of district-level People�s Committees, and with the coordination of the grassroots land road-managing units in combating the unlawful encroachment thereupon and the implementation of the law provisions on the protection of the land road traffic works in their commune territories. The district-level People�s Committees shall handle violations and manage the use of land in the land road protection corridors in their district territories according to the legislation on land, construction and land road traffic works protection.

In order to well implement the work of land road traffic works protection, the Vietnam Land Road Administration, the provincial/municipal Communications and Transport Services, the Communications and Public Works Services, the Land Road Management Departments and the land road-managing agencies should closely coordinate with the local administrations at all levels and concerned branches such as public security, defense, construction, agriculture and rural development, land administration and finance, based on their tasks assigned by the Government, to well implement the Government�s Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP.

This Circular takes effect 15 days after its signing.

For the Minister of Communications and Transport
Vice-Minister
PHAM QUANG TUYEN