Speed ​​up the construction progress of Dien Chau - Bai Vot expressway following the direction of the Ministry of Transport

The North-South expressway project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section, belongs to the project to build a number of expressway sections on the North-South Eastern route in the 2017 - 2020 period, invested by Phuc Thanh Hung Investment Joint Stock Company (project enterprise).

Phase 1 of the project is divided into investment phases with a scale of 4 lanes, 17m wide roadbed, and design speed of 80km/h.

Currently, the Dien Chau - Bai Vot project is under construction. The cumulative value of the project implementation as of November 18, 2022 reached VND 1,545 billion (18% of the contract value).

Recently, after the project inspection, the Ministry of Transport issued a document requesting the investor and project enterprise to urgently direct contractors to mobilize human resources, machinery, equipment, and supplement enough construction teams at the construction site according to the progress plan approved by the project enterprise, take advantage of favorable weather, and direct contractors to work overtime to make up for the delayed progress.

In particular, the Ministry of Transport requested to remove contractors with weak capacity from the project, especially contractors: 456 Joint Stock Company, Vina2 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company, Dai Hiep Company Limited.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet - General Director of Phuc Thanh Hung Investment Joint Stock Company (project enterprise) said that the direction of the Ministry of Transport is appropriate in the current situation. According to the BOT contract, if the contractor is behind schedule, the Ministry of Transport has the right to request the project enterprise to replace the contractor.

However, the project enterprise is the party that directly signs the contract with the contractor, so the replacement and termination of the contract with the contractor is under the authority and responsibility of the project enterprise, so the project enterprise must review the specific terms of the construction contract signed with the contractor to consider each specific case.

Construction of Than Vu tunnel through Dien Chau. Photo: Tran Chau

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet added: BOT projects are different from public investment projects. In BOT projects, investors must borrow from banks and pay interest (interest during construction and interest during toll collection), so if the project is delayed, the investor will suffer huge losses. Therefore, if the project is delayed, the investor will be the first to suffer.

The project enterprise said: In terms of the capacity of the 3 contractors requested by the Ministry of Transport to be eliminated, Dai Hiep Company Limited is the contractor with enough capacity to meet the volume and progress of their bid package (it is known that Dai Hiep Company Limited has just completed the construction of bid package 11 of the North-South expressway project, Cam Lo - La Son section, under the Ho Chi Minh City Project Management Board as the investor, and has reached the finish line the earliest); Joint Stock Company 456 is relatively weak, the construction organization is spread out, during the operation process, the project enterprise has regularly issued many documents directing the contractor to speed up the progress, stating that if the progress is not met, the volume will be returned to the investor to transfer to another unit; Vina2 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company is essentially an investor and they are also a contractor of the project, but in reality they only build toll stations and operators, but according to the plan, this item has not been completed yet, so the project enterprise will report to the Ministry of Transport more clearly about this case.

Construction of O O bridge through Nghi Loc district. Photo: Tran Chau

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet said that replacing the contractor will entail many administrative procedures according to the law and will have to extend the implementation time (need to settle the volume of work the contractor has done, update the material price and review the estimate of the remaining volume, re-perform all the initial procedures to select a new contractor...). At this time, finding a strong contractor to participate in the project is not simple when many public investment projects are about to be implemented simultaneously.

Regarding the reason for the delay, Mr. Viet explained: Although the project started in May 2021, the bank only disbursed the loan capital in October 2022, because according to the provisions of the credit contract, the initial 515 billion must use equity capital. Over the past year, investors and contractors had to spend their own money to implement the project, so it was very difficult. Now that the cash flow has cleared, investors have focused on machinery and workers to speed up progress.

The project enterprise will propose to the Ministry of Transport to allow Dai Hiep Company Limited to maintain the volume and continue construction. Meanwhile, 456 Joint Stock Company will reduce the volume to complete the project on schedule; Vina2 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company is the investor and has not yet assessed the slow progress. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet also affirmed that the slow progress is partly the responsibility of the investors participating in the project and will be determined to mobilize forces and means to make up for the slow progress.

Mr. Le Duc Hao - Head of Project Management Board of Truong Son Company said: During the past time, all contractors have had great difficulties in implementing the project. In early 2022, the Covid-19 epidemic made it impossible to carry out construction. After that, the price of raw materials and steel was expensive and the supply was scarce. Highway and traffic projects opened simultaneously, so the source of fill soil, soil mines, and sand was scarce and the procedures were very difficult. Many projects did not have enough reserves to carry out.