Trains of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Transport has requested the Chinese contractor of CatLinh-Ha Dong metro line in Hanoi to commit a specific deadline when the projectwill be finished.
Although 99 percent ofthe construction work is completed and equipment has been installed to getready for trial run, the project’s commercial operation has experiencedmultiple setbacks.
Since its constructionstarted in 2011, the official operation was delayed eight times. The latestpromise made by the transport ministry pushed the deadline to April this year.
In a document respondingto a recent question of the National Assembly delegation of southern Ba Ria-VungTau province on when the metro line will run, the ministry blamed the longdelay on the Chinese contractor failing to follow its orders to accelerate thework.
The project’sdifficulties have been reported to the Prime Minister and the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Vietnam and the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to seek support andpossible solutions.
“The Ministry of Transporthas worked with Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy to hold meetingsonce every two week to review the work’s progress,” the ministry said in thedocument.
“This aims to urge thecontractor and relevant sides to accelerate the progress and soon put the metroline into commercial operation.”
The Cat Linh-Ha Dongmetro line has used official development assistance (ODA) from China withappointed contractor and supervision consultant also from China.
The project has a totalinvestment of 866 million USD. It was initially scheduled to begin operation in 2016./.
VNA
