This information was presented by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport in a report sent to the Ministry of Transport, updating the implementation status of key transport projects in the city.
According to the report, Metro Line 1 project (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) has achieved about 98.81% of the workload.
In which, the system safety certification assessment is being completed with 10 out of 13 reports completed, equivalent to about 80% of the volume.
The trial operation process on the entire Metro Line No. 1, carried out by the Urban Railway Company No. 1, began on October 1 and is expected to last until November 30. This is the final inspection step to ensure system safety before the project officially goes into operation.
However, the project is facing difficulties and obstacles due to internal disagreements between contractors in the CP1a consortium (construction of the underground section from Ben Thanh station to City Theater station).
SMC4 Joint Venture (Sumitomo Mitsui - CIENCO4 Joint Venture is the general contractor of CP1a package) has not yet reached an agreement on signing the project documents.
For example, the signature of the consortium member CIENCO4 Group Joint Stock Company is missing in the contract appendices (contract appendix adjusting the contract implementation time, appendices related to payment and disbursement, providing VAT invoices for payment, etc.).
Faced with this situation, the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railways (MAUR - the investor) has conducted many working sessions with both members of the consortium, listening to the opinions and proposals of Sumitomo Mitsui and CIENCO4.
MAUR suggested that both sides make efforts to discuss and compromise to agree on solutions and thoroughly resolve internal problems within the consortium in the spirit of cooperation and support, avoiding affecting the progress of Metro Line 1 project.
To ensure progress and disbursement, on October 24, MAUR sent a document requesting the consortium SMC4 and CIENCO4 Group Corporation to urgently complete related documents and submit them to MAUR in October.
MAUR also emphasized that if these documents are not provided on time, the unit will report to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Ministry of Transport, and even report to the Prime Minister for direction, in order to have strong, thorough and decisive handling measures.
To date, this issue has not been resolved by the parties involved.
Faced with this situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has proposed the State Steering Committee for important national projects and key transport sector works and projects and the Ministry of Transport to direct CIENCO4 Group Joint Stock Company to urgently complete the above documents in November 2024 to ensure the project's completion progress.
In case of non-compliance, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport proposes to take measures to deal with other transportation projects that CIENCO4 Group Joint Stock Company is participating in, including measures to limit bidding for a limited period in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, this year Metro Line 1 must disburse more than VND4,467 billion, but by the end of October, it had only disbursed more than VND962 billion, reaching 21.54% of the plan.
Ho Chi Minh City aims to officially operate Metro Line 1 from December 22, 2024.
