The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) has just sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance to report on the inspection and assessment of the implementation of Metro Line 1.
Metro No. 1 officially operated from December 22, 2024, after being approved by the State Inspection Council for acceptance with conditions.
From this point on, MAUR and contractors have actively handled situations arising during operation, overcome shortcomings, construct unfinished items and complete the completion documents.
According to MAUR, there are still some construction items that are not completed, but do not affect the operation of Metro Line 1.
In particular, the O&M Company Office - headquarters of Urban Railway Company No. 1 (the operator and operator of Metro Line 1) has a total contract value of more than 46.4 billion VND (using counterpart funds of the project).
Although the plan was to complete on December 31, 2024, the implementation volume has only reached about 90%. MAUR has requested contractors to actively coordinate with Thai Son Corporation Limited and supervision consultants to remove existing difficulties and speed up construction progress. It is expected that the remaining work will be completed in June 2025.
The information technology system for the O&M building (CP4 package) - implemented by a joint venture of NTT Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd. and FPT Information System Joint Stock Company (NTT - FIS) with a contract value of more than 106.3 billion VND - has also only reached about 90% of the progress.
The construction delay comes from many reasons such as slow handover of the site, difficulty in handling the technical interface with the contractor Hitachi ( Regarding the AFC electronic ticket system and software integration). MAUR is expected to complete the entire package in June 2025.
In addition, the project implementation process also raised many issues related to construction time, site handover and dispute resolution with contractors. MAUR said it is working hard to negotiate, reconcile and provide legal advice to resolve the issue.
Ho Chi Minh City has also worked with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Embassy and the Government of Japan (the ODA source) to remove problems arising with Japanese contractors.
The city directs MAUR to prioritize the quick and thorough resolution of outstanding issues, ensuring the rights of contractors on the basis of compliance with legal regulations and contract terms.
According to Decision No. 3975/QD-UBND dated September 24, 2024 of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, the time to complete the construction of metro line No. 1 is at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. The warranty period of construction works lasts until the end of 2025; The phase of operation support and maintenance lasts until the end of 2028.
However, due to the fact that there are still some auxiliary works that have not been completed and the acceptance and payment procedures must be completed, MAUR proposed to adjust the completion time of Metro Line 1 to the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. The project completion time will remain unchanged until 2028.
Metro Line 1 is the first urban railway line in Ho Chi Minh City, with a total investment of more than 43,757 billion VND. Up to now, the accumulated disbursement of the entire project has reached about 74.7% of the total investment capital.
Therefore, MAUR submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance for consideration and consultation on agreeing on the content of the report related to the proposal to adjust the implementation time of Metro Line 1 project to serve as a basis for implementing the next work.
