HANOI, December 27 (Engineering Daily) -- Hanoi residents will have to wait at least another year to be able to travel on the first urban railway Cat Linh - Ha Dong, as the investor confirmed the project could be completed at the end of 2018.
The Vietnam Railway Bureau and the China Railway 6 Bureau signed an EPC contract for the Cat Linh-Ha Dong Urban Railway Project in 2009, opening the door of the metro projects to relieve traffic tie-up in the capital.
At that time, Hanoi people dreamed that by 2014 there would be a flyover railway. However, in 2016, with the approval, the total project investment was increased from $ 552 million to $ 891 million and the deadline for completion was also extended to Quarter I of 2018.
So far, the target of Hanoi to build and operate 13.1 km of the first urban railway seems still quite distant. The cost that Hanoi had to trade nearly a decade of waiting became higher more than expected. Even many residents of the capital received information that the project was again delayed with a calm mood.
The cost of wasting time and the financial damage caused by traffic jams is serious problem. However, the most expensive cost is the belief in the capacity of the public to implement ambitious infrastructure projects is eroded.
Not only the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway, the entire urban railway projects are being deployed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are increased of the capital, 60% minimum, nearly 200% maximum, progress is also behind schedule from 3 - 5 years.
Causes of slow progress and cost overrun of urban railway projects are complicate investment procedures, difficult ODA procedures, public debt ceiling, ground clearance, specifications for the projects.
Over cost and slow progress not only damage the economy, but also reduce the efficiency of investment, causing bad consequences for the whole system of mechanisms and policies. The related ministries and sectors have to run along the spiral of over cost to amend, supplement and submit a series of mechanisms and policies to adjust the capital for the projects.
As a solution, we can establish a joint steering committee, in which representatives of the Ministry of Transport and local leaders owning projects participate, to jointly urge implementation. Besides clearly identifying the cause, it is time to assign specific responsibilities to the individuals and organizations involved for the occurrence of both delay and over budget.
Obviously, it is time for project owners to get stronger with over budget. This may start of over fly railway projects that have caused much frustration for the people of the two major cities over the past decade.
