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Addressing government bodies, Hoa Lu demanded that project developer Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) cancel its decision to qualify Vietur in terms of technical capability to build the terminal at what will be the biggest airport in Vietnam.
Hoa Lu, a consortium of eight contractors led by Coteccons, said that there are several reasons why its competitior Vietur is incapable of handling the project.
It said that the chairman of IC Holdings, a Turkey-based contractor which is part of the Vietur consortium, has been accused of corruption in several projects.
IC Holdings also has a record of delay in constructing many projects and being terminated from major projects, it added.
There are signs that IC Holdings’ claims of experience in building big airport projects have also been inflated, it said.
IC Holdings is the contractor of Pulkovo Airport in Russia. Even though it claimed that the airport will have a capacity of 20 million passengers by 2025, the actual estimate is 17 million, Hoa Lu said.
IC Holdings built Varna Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, a small airport of only 3 million passengers a year, which cannot be compared with Long Thanh, it added.
The Turkish contractor also said that it has experience in building King Khaled Airport in Saudi Arabia, but the project began in 2017 and is not yet finished, it said.
Hoa Lu also complained about the methodology of the bidding.
It said that three bidders need to go through a technical round and a financial round to be qualified for constructing the terminal, but ACV had already ruled out it and another contractor from the technical round, meaning that there will be no competition to Vietur in the financial round.
Hoa Lu therefore proposed that the technical capability of IC Holdings be reconsidered by an independent organization.
A representative of ACV, however, insisted to VnExpress that the company had not received Hoa Lu’s complaint.
Long Thanh terminal, set to cost VND35 trillion ($1.47 billion), is the biggest contract in Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province. The total price tag of the airport is at around VND336.63 trillion.
Its construction is divided into three phases. The first, with one runway and terminal, is expected to be completed in 2025, allowing the airport to handle 25 million passengers a year.
In the second, to be completed by 2035, another runway and terminal will be added, doubling the capacity to 50 million.
Other infrastructure will be built by 2050 in the third phase, when the capacity will again double to 100 million passengers.
