Untangling 8 metro lines with a series of unique and outstanding mechanisms

(Dan Tri) - Special and outstanding mechanisms were submitted by experts advising Ho Chi Minh City to the National Assembly for approval to solve the problem of synchronizing the metro network for the city after decades on paper.

One hour is the minimum time it takes Nguyen Thao Ly (living in Binh Thanh District), a second-year student at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, to get to class every day. The distance is only 10km, but there are days when Ly is late for class because she is "stuck" with hundreds of container trucks on the Hanoi Highway. On the opposite side of the city, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan, an office worker, is also fed up with the scene of honking car horns, jostling for every empty space on the sidewalk on Truong Chinh Street (Tan Binh District) every morning and afternoon. The hardships on the way to work and school of Mr. Tuan and Thao Ly represent millions of people in the city. They look forward to the timely presence of the 8-line metro system, contributing to solving the increasingly pressing traffic problem of the city.

Difficult enough

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Tuan (Director of the Investment Preparation Board of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board) commented that in reality, any large city in the world that wants to develop its economy and society needs to build a modern and synchronous transportation system. In particular, completing the urban railway network is a very urgent issue. "Looking back at the construction of the two lines, it is clearly too slow. Metro Line 1 was constructed in 17 years, and Metro Line 2 in 22 years. And in fact, after nearly 20 years since the research and development of urban railway projects, Ho Chi Minh City still has no official commercial exploitation lines," said Mr. Tuan.

Map of the metro network in Ho Chi Minh City according to planning (Graphic: Nima Farid).

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Tuan also frankly stated that if we continue to implement the same method as the past 20 years, it will take another hundred years to complete the urban railway system. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Development Plan to 2020 and vision after 2030, Ho Chi Minh City has 6 expressways, 5 national highways, 3 beltways, 5 elevated roads, 8 metro lines, 3 tramways, and monorail lines.

Ho Chi Minh City needs a solution to shorten the implementation time to 10 years or even 5 years.

Associate Professor Dr. Vu Anh Tuan Vietnam-Germany University

To date, only metro line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) is nearing completion, expected to be commercially operational by the end of 2024. Metro line No. 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) has just started construction of the first package, expected to be completed in 2032. In addition, the city is preparing to invest in a 9km section from Bay Hien to Saigon Bridge on line No. 5 (Tan Cang station - new Can Giuoc bus station). The investment and synchronous construction of the Ho Chi Minh City metro system has so far encountered numerous difficulties, due to huge funding issues, complicated investment procedures, limited contractor capacity, challenges in site clearance, and shortage of human resources...

Metro trains No. 1 at Long Binh depot, Thu Duc City (Photo: Chi Hung).

Meanwhile, Conclusion 49 of the Politburo has set the goal of completing the HCMC metro system by 2035, which means that HCMC only has 11 years left to complete the remaining 183km of urban railway. And to achieve this ambition, HCMC needs a "revolution" in thinking, mechanisms, and policies, from effectively exploiting land funds, mobilizing capital sources, to streamlining procedures, applying advanced technology, and training high-quality human resources.

Need superior mechanism

Associate Professor Dr. Vu Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam-Germany Transport Research and Development Center (Vietnam-Germany University), believes that Ho Chi Minh City needs a solution to shorten the implementation time to 10 years or even 5 years. To do this, the project management cycle needs to change in the direction of assigning the entire package to the general contractor. The city is responsible for approving the project, while allowing the city to take advantage of the special mechanism and self-determination according to Resolution 98. Associate Professor Dr. Vu Anh Tuan also believes that the city needs to improve the capacity of the Urban Railway Management Board, the Department of Transport, and the Department of Planning and Architecture in terms of technical capacity in appraising plans, designs, and technologies. In particular, site clearance must be prioritized and thoroughly resolved from the beginning. Sharing a similar view, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Tuan said that the investment preparation work for a metro line alone takes at least 7-9 years. In fact, the two metro lines under construction have both spent 2 years adjusting the project, and 1.5 years adjusting the project implementation time, even though no design changes have been made. "This process is too long, discouraging investors. There needs to be a special mechanism to shorten procedures, approval time, appraisal time, and possibly skip the pre-feasibility report step," said Mr. Tuan.

Looking back at the construction of two metro lines in Ho Chi Minh City, it is clearly too slow.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Tuan, Director of Investment Preparation Board - Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board

Recently, the Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City has compiled opinions and research from departments, agencies and suggestions from a team of experts to develop a project to develop the urban railway system of Ho Chi Minh City and submit it to the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. In this project, agencies and experts identified the biggest reason for the delay in investing and building the metro network over the past decades is the lack of appropriate resource allocation, slow and complicated investment procedures, and the lack of appropriate and innovative policies and mechanisms to mobilize investment resources. On the other hand, the technical standards of the routes are not yet synchronized, metro planning is not linked to urban development space and other types of transport, site clearance is difficult, large investment capital using ODA loans is subject to the constraints of the Sponsor and depends on the capacity of foreign consultants and contractors. Accordingly, agencies and experts have proposed and advised Ho Chi Minh City to request 22 special and outstanding mechanisms to remove inherent bottlenecks, creating breakthroughs for the process of completing the backbone metro system for Ho Chi Minh City's future traffic. Notably, the key mechanisms allow Ho Chi Minh City to proactively decide on investment policies, decentralize the authority to appraise, approve, exploit land funds along the metro line, attract private investment, etc.

People experience metro train No. 1 Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien (Photo: Hai Long).

Specifically, mechanism 7 allows Ho Chi Minh City to be financially autonomous by exploiting all revenue sources from land. Mechanism 8, Ho Chi Minh City wants to be free to issue local government bonds, separate bonds for metro projects without being limited by the public debt limit. In particular, with mechanism 12, Ho Chi Minh City is allowed to submit to the National Assembly for decision on investment policy for the entire metro network, after which Ho Chi Minh City will self-approve the component projects, helping to significantly shorten time and procedures. Mechanism 13, Ho Chi Minh City is in charge of appraising and approving EIA, fire prevention and control reports, and project acceptance, reducing the participation of central agencies, and speeding up implementation. With mechanism 14, Ho Chi Minh City is assigned consulting contracts for uncomplicated bidding packages, shortening the time for selecting consultants, ensuring progress. Mechanism 15, exempting procedures for preparing project proposals when using ODA capital and preferential loans, helps Ho Chi Minh City proactively and quickly implement key metro projects. Under Mechanism 16, HCMC is paid ODA capital flexibly according to actual progress, regardless of the annual ODA capital plan, optimizing the efficiency of loan capital use.

To complete the urban railway network according to the planning of Ho Chi Minh City, it needs 25.8 billion USD - according to calculations 20 years ago. The capital source mainly depends on public investment and ODA loans. Of which, ODA loans for metro investment projects in Ho Chi Minh City are about 6.5 billion USD (reaching about 23%). The budget capital only meets about 50% of the demand to achieve the goal of building infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2021-2025. Therefore, the study of investment in urban railway projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) contract has been proposed. However, the procedure for investing in metro under the PPP form has to go through dozens of very cumbersome steps. Because there are too many procedures, there are no private investors participating in the construction of metro projects in Ho Chi Minh City.

Thu Tran - Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/go-roi-8-tuyen-metro-voi-loat-co-che-dac-thu-vuot-troi-20240522165025030.htm