Contractor of Hanoi’s metro line No. 3 demands compensation

At a recent meeting with the city government on the project’s progress, a representative of a foreign consortium comprising South Korea’s Hyundai and Italy’s Ghella, the contractor of the CP03 package of tunnels and underground stations, pointed out the difficulties in building four underground stations—S9, S10, S11 and S12.

The two greatest obstacles to the execution of the project are the delayed land handover and the late payments to the contractor, the representative added.

Specifically, the contractor has just been handed land for station S9 and part of the site for station S10.

In addition, an agreement to borrow from the Asian Development Bank expired on June 30 last year, and the contractor has yet to be paid for what has been done.

These problems will definitely hamper the project’s progress, the contractor’s representative stressed, adding that they have twice urged the Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board (MRB), the project investor, to make payments.

Meanwhile, the management board admitted that it owed contractors of the metro line No. 3 project VND206 billion (US$8.9 million) and the consultant of the project VND72.4 billion.

The late payments will not affect the project’s quality but its progress. The Government is expected to allocate capital to make payments to the contractors and the consultant this month, according to an MRB representative.

Regarding the demand for compensation by the contractor of the CP03 package, the MRB representative said that the amount had been calculated by the contractor. It has yet to be checked by the consultant or the investor. MRB has asked the contractor to explain the amount and to make demands in line with Vietnamese laws and the terms of the contract with MRB.

The metro line No. 3 project is designed to pass through Bac Tu Liem, Nam Tu Liem, Cau Giay, Ba Dinh, Dong Da and Hoan Kiem districts of Hanoi City and have a length of 12.5 kilometers. Of its 12 stations, eight are elevated and four are underground.

Work on the project started in September 2010 and was expected to end in September 2017. The total investment after being adjusted upward twice is VND36 trillion to date.

Late last year, the Government asked the contractors to complete the project by December 2022.