HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City's Metro Line No. 1 (Ben Thanh–Suoi Tien) is close to the finish line but is facing some difficulties, thus the local administration and the investor are making efforts to remove obstacles so that the it can start commercial operation soon.
According to HCM City’s Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), 98% of the workload on the project has been completed.
Training for the operation of the metro line and preparation for acceptance work are underway. However, there are problems between contractors and project consultants.
According to the project’s investor, contractors and consultants for Metro Line No. 1 have not agreed on the early handover of equipment and infrastructure for training, acceptance, and trial operation, resulting in a possibility that the metro line could not start commercial operations by the end of this year as scheduled.
Earlier in March, the municipal People’s Committees set up a task group to settle difficulties related to the project. To date, the task group has held three meetings on the issue.
Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Phan Van Mai also sent a letter to the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam, in which he affirmed that the city will consider the Japanese side's proposal to resolve disputes through the Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB). The city also asked the Japanese side to pool all resources so that contractor Hitachi can complete the trial operation of bidding package CP3 in May and the handover of a number of carriages and equipment required for the NJPT Consortium, the general consultant of the project, to conduct practical training.
The investor, general consultant and contractor have coordinated with the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department to conduct fire prevention inspection and acceptance for each item and the entire project.
Regarding personnel training, training work at Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railways No. 1 Company Limited, which is responsible for operating and managing the metro line, will be finished by the end of third quarter.
The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line runs 19.7km between District 1's Ben Thanh Market and Thu Duc city's Long Thanh Depot with three underground stations and 11 elevated stations. Work on the metro project started in 2012 and has gone through various delays. Its costs have risen to over 43.7 trillion VND (1.71 billion USD)./.
