The depot area in Bac Tu Liem District, spanning 15 ha, has structures like operation centers and facilities for train storage, maintenance and electric works.
Construction work on various facilities in the depot began in January 2013. It was supposed to be completed in 2018, but has been postponed until the end of this year.
The administrative area is still under construction. It is said that construction of the depot is 77 percent complete.
Le Tran Tuan, operations director of the Depot CP05 bidding package being implemented by the Hanoi Construction Corporation (Hancorp), said the most important factor in the delay was money. The package was supposed to cost around VND600 billion ($25.67 million), but this estimate has since ballooned to VND950 billion ($40.65 million).
One floor of an administrative building stands partially complete with exposed electrical and ventilation systems.
Hanoi had aimed to put the metro's elevated section into operation at the end of this year, but foreign experts have said that this no longer looks feasible due to delays in depot constructions.
Water pipes, fences and rubbles around the administrative area. There are around 60 construction workers at the scene, and once there's enough material and equipment, the team could be expanded to around 200 people.
Several experts have said that Hancorp is either incapable of or unwilling to fulfill its signed contracts. If construction of the depot remains unfinished, it would impact progress of other relevant structures like control rooms and monitoring systems, which can have severe financial consequences.
Electrical wiring for the train storage area is complete, it has been reported. Ten trains of the metro project reached the depot late last year.
Inside the depot area, several structures are left abandoned. Piles of sand bags placed in front of the maintenance facility have been disintegrating.
Hancorp said as per the contract signed in 2012, all data involving equipment and machineries used in the project had be submitted to the contractor 13 months later for inclusion in the project's blueprint. But it was only in March 2020 that most of the data for the project was submitted to Hancorp.
The fire prevention system for the project was officially approved in December 2021, and the control system in April 2022. Delays and adjustments to the project have led to additional costs, according to Hancorp. For example, the cost for the project's mechanical-electrical parts was estimated at VND136 billion, but this has tripled now.
The fact that the project has no main contractor means that different contractors must coordinate with each other to finish the project, which slows down the entire process, said the project's director.
The frames for the maintenance facilities have been completed, for the most part, but their interiors look bare.
Very few workers can be seen in the maintenance facilities.
Hancorp said if all incurred costs are approved within this month, construction of certain parts of the depot could be completed early next year for the elevated section of the metro to begin operations.
Besides its technical structures, the depot area also has a three-meter-deep reservoir to regulate rainwater.
