The key to HCMC's infrastructure take off

TP - The first urban railway (metro) line of Ho Chi Minh City will be put into commercial operation at the end of this year. With lessons learned from the implementation of this project, Ho Chi Minh City is planning to complete the metro system planning to transform the city's transport infrastructure, worthy of the stature of a national economic locomotive within the next 10 years.

Lessons “more precious than gold”

It has been 12 years since the construction of Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) began. A series of difficulties and obstacles that caused this 47,000 billion VND "super project" to miss its deadline and delay its completion date many times have been basically resolved. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR, the investor), the total progress of the project has now been completed by more than 98%. In the final steps, the problems related to the contractor have been resolved. The project will be put into commercial operation by the end of this year.

HCMC Metro Line 1 project will be commercially operational by the end of this year. Photo: Duy Anh

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hien - Deputy Head of MAUR said that our country currently has only 3 Urban Railway Management Boards, including one board of the Ministry of Transport building the Cat Linh - Ha Dong line, one board of the Hanoi People's Committee building metro line 3 (Nhon - Hanoi station section) and the remaining board of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee building metro line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien). All 3 metro lines when being built have a common characteristic of being prolonged and cost overrun.

“This shows that we are facing problems with the system and many other issues. Metro is a large project, worth billions of dollars. The whole country only has a few projects with billions of dollars in investment capital. The technology is not new to the world but is new to our country. Therefore, it can be said that the metro team in all three management boards must both learn and work,” Mr. Hien acknowledged.

Applying lessons from metro line 1, the investor is preparing a "clean site" for metro line 2 project. Photo: Duy Anh

The Deputy Head of MAUR believes that the experience from Metro Line 1 will create a standard for the next metro lines in Ho Chi Minh City to learn from. Specifically, the first lesson that Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) is currently learning and implementing is to prepare a clean site both above ground and underground.

“In the period 2030 - 2040, Ho Chi Minh City will form 5 new cities according to the multi-center urban model. Metro will be one of the connection methods to solve current traffic congestion, at the same time helping the multi-center urban model to be implemented more smoothly.”

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai

“The site preparation stage requires a very careful survey, but metro line 1 is lacking. During the construction process, the contractor encountered one problem after another, causing the time to be extended and the cost to increase… A normal metro project takes about 5-6 years to complete, but we have been working on line 1 for 12 years now,” Mr. Hien shared.

Next is the legal lesson. The investor representative said that the reason why Metro Line 1 was stopped for a while was due to legal problems and there was no legal basis for implementation. Another equally important lesson is the management of contracts. Many problems and obstacles in Metro Line 1 project stemmed from unclear responsibilities of the parties, disputes between contractors and between contractors and general consultants, leading to project progress being affected.

A corner of Long Binh depot (Thu Duc City) Photo: Duy Anh

“Metro projects that have been and are being implemented are all implemented under international contracts (FIDIC contracts). In our country, when implementing metro projects, we must ensure that the FIDIC contract is followed, while ensuring compliance with current domestic laws. There are things that would be done very quickly if implemented under the FIDIC contract, but because of legal regulations, we have to ask for opinions here and there. In the near future, we need to increase decentralization and authorization for investors. If we have to report and ask for opinions on everything, it will affect the contractor and cause complaints and costs,” Mr. Hien cited.

Finally, MAUR leaders believe that future metro projects need to pay attention to operations, maintenance and training. Connectivity must be integrated from the beginning so that the final stage of preparation for operation will go more smoothly.

"Speeding up" the completion of the metro system

Mr. Vu Van Vinh - Director of Project Management Board 2 of MAUR said that while Line 1 is accelerating to the finish line, the Metro Line 2 project is also in the process of relocating technical infrastructure to prepare a "clean" site for the start of the main package at the end of 2025. Currently, 584/586 cases requiring clearance have agreed to hand over the site, reaching a rate of 99.6%. Contractors have organized the relocation of technical infrastructure works at 12 locations, including 10 station locations and 2 open-cut sections in the Ben Thanh area and Ba Queo station area. In 2024, MAUR strives to basically complete the relocation of main items such as water supply and drainage infrastructure at all station locations and will complete the remaining items in the first half of 2025. All for the goal of starting the main package by the end of 2025 and putting metro line 2 into operation by 2030.

From now until 2035, Ho Chi Minh City must have 200 km of urban railway. That is both a huge challenge and an opportunity to soon complete the urban railway system. According to Mr. Tran Quang Lam - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, to complete this goal, it is necessary to have specific mechanisms and policies to speed up investment preparation procedures. With 28 specific mechanisms, the Department of Transport has submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for consideration to submit to competent authorities. After completing this project, the Ministry of Transport will continue to collect opinions from ministries and branches and is expected to submit to the National Assembly by the end of this year to issue mechanisms and policies for implementation.

According to the project, by 2035, Ho Chi Minh City will complete 6 metro lines. Of which, Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) with a length of 19.7 km will be extended by nearly 21 km from Ben Thanh station to An Ha (Binh Chanh district), increasing the total length of the line to 40.8 km. Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) with a length of more than 11 km will invest in 2 more sections of 9.1 km, namely Ben Thanh - Thu Thiem and Tham Luong - An Suong bus station, increasing the total length of the line to 20.2 km. In addition, Ho Chi Minh City will complete 4 other lines including: Line 3 (Hiep Binh Phuoc - Dan Chu roundabout - Tan Kien - An Ha) with a length of 29.5 km; Line 4 (Dong Thanh depot - Ben Thanh - Ba Chiem station, Ring Road 3) with a length of 36.8 km; Line 5 (Vo Chi Cong station, Ring Road 2 - Bay Hien intersection - Da Phuoc depot) is 32.5 km long; Line 6 (Ba Queo - Tan Son Nhat airport - Binh Trieu - Phu Huu) is 22.8 km long. The total investment for the projects (excluding Line 1) is about 837,000 billion VND.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chia-khoa-de-ha-tang-tphcm-cat-canh-post1668063.tpo