Risk of delay in progress of 7,000 billion VND railway upgrade project

According to Giao thong Newspaper, in the 4 projects to renovate and upgrade the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City railway line using reserve capital from the medium-term state budget plan for the period 2016-2020 (package 7,000 billion), there is a weak bridge project that has been completed.

The Department of Construction Investment Management ( Ministry of Transport ) said that some packages in the remaining 3 projects (Hanoi - Vinh project, Vinh - Nha Trang project and Nha Trang - Saigon project) are at risk of not being completed on schedule in 2023.

“Because these are projects with important and urgent goals and nature, investors are required to urgently coordinate and work with relevant agencies to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles in procedures and site clearance; At the same time, direct construction contractors to mobilize maximum machinery, equipment, and construction personnel to compensate for the delayed progress,” the Department of Construction Investment Management proposed.

Many bidding packages of the 3 railway projects worth 7,000 billion VND are at risk of being behind schedule due to land clearance problems. Photo: Vinh Tan new station project of Nha Trang - Saigon Project (7,000 billion VND package)

Specifically, the representative of the Railway Project Management Board said that the Board was assigned to be the investor of 3 projects: Weak Bridge, Hanoi - Vinh, Nha Trang - Saigon, of which the Weak Bridge project has been completed.

The Hanoi - Vinh project, the station construction package is part of the EPC package for the signal information system, and is currently selecting contractors. The Nha Trang - Saigon project has 9 basic construction packages completed, with only the Song Luy station project (Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province) remaining unfinished due to site clearance issues.

“This item belongs to package 17, constructing 1.2km of railway in the station. To carry out the construction, it is necessary to clear the land of 28 households, the locality has cleared and handed over the land of 25 households. The construction unit has constructed about 900m of road on this land, the remaining 300m is still stuck, the locality has not yet cleared it. The investor will continue to coordinate closely with the locality to remove obstacles in the land, quickly have a construction site, and speed up the progress”, said a representative of the Railway Project Management Board.

The project to reinforce weak tunnels, open new stations and renovate the upper-level architecture of the Vinh - Nha Trang section (invested by Project Management Board 85). The project is divided into 7 construction packages. To date, 5 packages have been completed, of which 4 packages have been accepted and put into use. Currently, 2 packages are still under construction, package 8 and package 11A, which are affected by the progress.

According to the Project Management Board, in package No. 8, the locality has not yet completed the site clearance work for the construction of a number of project items such as: Xuan Son Nam station, Dong Tac station (Phu Yen province); railway crossing and bridge at Km607+920 (Gio Linh district, Quang Tri province); service road Km775+527-Km775+875 (Da Nang city); newly opened Tam Thanh station (Quang Nam province)...

With package 11A, due to complex geological conditions, during the construction process, subsidence of the strata behind the tunnel lining occurred at some locations of Phu Cu and Chi Thanh tunnels. After the survey, the Design Consultant recommended adjusting the support structure and construction time.

To resolve the problem of construction site, the Project Management Board proposed that the Ministry of Transport send a document to the provinces to urge localities to promptly complete site clearance work and hand it over to the construction contractor to ensure project progress.