Hanoi’s metro line contractors want $81 mln compensation for delays

By Vo Hai   April 3, 2019 | 05:12 am PT
Hanoi’s metro line contractors want $81 mln compensation for delays
Delays have pushed the cost of the Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station metro line up to $1.55 billion. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh
Contractors of the Nhon-Hanoi Station metro line have demanded $81 million in compensation for delays in handing over construction land.

The Hyundai-Ghella contractor consortium said recently that it has not received all the land required to construct four underground metro stations.

The consortium, comprising a South Korean and an Italian company, needs four land plots to construct the S9, S10, S11 and S12 stations. But so far it has only received the land for S9 and part of the land for S10. The land needed for building the S11 and S12 stations has not been handed over yet.

The consortium is also facing financial difficulties as it has not been paid for the finished work, it said.

According to the Hanoi Metropolitan Railway Management Board (MRB), the city owes the contractor consortium VND200 billion ($8.64 million) and French consultant VND72 billion ($3.1 million).

The MRB, which operates the metro project, also said that the compensation claimed is the contractors’ valuation that has not been verified.

The government will disburse funds to the contractors and the consultancy consortium this month, it added.

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station route, or the second metro line, runs 12.5 kilometers from Nhon area in the western district of Nam Tu Liem, via Kim Ma Street to Hanoi Railway Station in the downtown area. It runs 8.5 kilometers on elevated tracks through eight stations and four kilometers underground through four stations.

Work on the line first began in 2010, with the cost estimated at $1.2 billion and operations scheduled to start in 2017, but delays have pushed the cost up to $1.55 billion.

So far about half of the project has been completed. The MRB plans to commercially operate the elevated section next year and the underground section in 2022.

Hanoi’s first metro line, from Cat Linh to Ha Dong, is scheduled to begin operations this month. The 13-kilometer route runs from Cat Linh Station in downtown Dong Da District to the Yen Nghia Station in the south-west Ha Dong District.

 
 
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