A section of North-South Expressway under construction (Photo: VNA) In fact, several contractors violating the progress of the project have beenrepeatedly warned, criticised, and put under special monitoring.
If any contractor violates a signed commitment, the ministry will terminate thecontract, revoke the guarantee and not allow participation in otherprojects.
According to the ministry’s latest report, six out of ten component projects ofthe North-South Expressway have not yet met their scheduled timetables.
Specifically, as of October 18, the Mai Son-National Highway 45 sub-projectwith a length of 63.4km has only realised 68.4% of the contractvalue and is 1.4% behind schedule.
The Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet project has carried out 47.74% of the contractvalue and is 5.3% behind the adjusted plan.
In the Phan Thiet-Dau Giay project, 53% of the contract value has beenimplemented and is 1.33% behind the adjusted plan.
The project of Highway 45-Nghi Son has realised 47.3% of the contractvalue, 1.99% behind the plan while the Dien Chau-Bai Vot project hasreached 11% of its value and is 5.1% behind schedule.
According to the ministry’s assessment, the five main reasons for thedelay were difficulties in site clearance, abnormal weather, theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic, obstacles in procedures for licensing themining of materials, and large fluctuations in the prices of constructionmaterials and supplies.
In addition to the above reasons, a series of contractors were stillsluggish in construction, affecting the process of the North-South Expresswayeven though the Project Management Board had issued warnings.
For example, at the Mai Son-National Highway 45 component project, somecontractors have not yet made any move to speed up the construction althoughthe Project Management Board had continuously urged, even with writtenwarnings.
Contractors who were warned and put into special monitoring are Cuong Thinh ThiConstruction and Investment Group, Tan Thanh Joint Stock Company, Hoang LongConstruction and Investment Corporation, Mien Trung Construction Group, Tan NamConstruction Joint Stock Company and Transport Construction Corporation 8(Cienco 8).
“The continuous delay in the construction progress was the subjectiveresponsibility of the contractors. The delay was seriously affecting thedisbursement plan, the time to road surface construction and the completion ofthe whole project as per the schedule set by the Minister of Transport,"said a representative of the North-South Expressway Management and OperationBoard.|
Pham Quoc Huy, director of the Vinh Hao-Phan Thiet project, saidthat following the guidance of the Ministry of Transport, the projectmanagement board asked the contractors to sign a commitment to theconstruction plan.
Contractors that slow down the project will change their behavior or bereplaced.
In order to speed up progress, the Ministry of Transport has implemented aseries of solutions such as site inspections and organising weeklybriefings with project management boards and contractors toreview construction progress.
Contractors must control their progress daily, weekly and monthly so as to haveplans to ensure the completion of the project according to the requiredschedule.
In the case of irreparable delay, the Ministry of Transport will addsub-contractors and strictly manage the contractors violating theprovisions of the contracts.
The project management board was asked to closely monitor and evaluateproject progress, and report to the ministry the contractors who do not complywith commitments so as to consider not allowing them to bid on theNorth-South Expressway project phase 2, or terminating their contracts andrevoking guarantees.
According to Nguyen Huu Duc, an expert on transport construction, in reality,many transport construction businesses have the capacity to undertake theprojects but they are participating in too many different works, contractpackages or projects, so they do not spend enough resources on thenew project.
Sharing this view, Dinh Trong Thinh, a senior lecturer of the Finance Academy,said that in order to ensure the progress of key transport works, theministry should not assign businesses to implement too many projects atthe same time and must carefully consider the overall volume of projects anda business’ capacity./.
VNA
