THE INVESTOR COMPLETED THE PROJECT AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
During the implementation and construction of Hai Van Tunnel 2, the investor faced many difficulties related to technical requirements when they must drill the tunnel 2 but also maintain the operation process along with ensure the security for the test of Hai Van Tunnel 1 (time to close the tunnel gate for blasting, controlling the vibration and monitoring the deformation of the Hai van Tunnel 1); as well as meet the strict requirements of environment protection when the construction locates in the territory of 2 local regions owning two key economic sectors including tourism and alquaculture.
In addition, from early 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic had severely impacted on the completion timeline of all construction categories when the building was delayed temporarily and applied the social distancing following the direction of the Government and local authorities. However, by putting an effort and spirit of challenge overcoming, the investor and related parties already completed the construction with the good quality accordance with the design documents and current technical standards. All construction work finished on 30th Sept 2020, that is 3 months ahead of the schedule approved by the Ministry of Transport.
The completion milestone was officially recorded on 20th Nov 2020 when the National Evaluation Committee had inspected the Hai Van Tunnel and approved the acceptance result of the Ministry of Transport, marking the completion of the Hai Van Tunnel 2.
The evaluation meeting was chaired by Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport, currently as Vice Chairman of the State Council for Acceptance result of the construction works, Le Quang Hung. In his conclusion speech, Mr Le Quang Hung already praised the hardworking of the investor, implementation agencies, monitoring agencies and the government authoritized agencies to finish the project ahead of the schedule. Through the review and evaluation opinions, the State Evaluation Council all agreed with the final report which is that the Hai Van Tunnel 2 already fulfilled the requirements to be ready for the vehicle circulation and continue several steps for the complete test.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Le Dinh Tho – Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport, representing for State management agency, has highly evaluated the capacity of Deo Ca group at the project investor role: “Deo ca is one of the leading group in implementing the transport constructions. With many famous projects, Deo Ca has a wealth of experience, especially in construction organization, quality control, progress control, environment protection and other issues related to safety and security”
Talking about the meaning in pushing the social – economic development brought by the Hai Van Tunnel 2, Mr Nguyen Van Phuong, Vice President of the Thua Thien – Hue People’ Committee, expressed his desire to put the construction into operation soon in order to enhance the connection between two big cities of the Middle, including Thua Thien- Hue and Da Nang, and expand trade between the North and the South, grow the social-economic development for the key economic regions in the Middle and all over the country.
A LACK OF BUDGET FOR OPERATION
At this moment, the investor has still not defined exactly the time to put the tunnel into operation, due to several objective reasons. Mr Phan Van Thang, Vice President of Deo Ca Group and representative of the investor, acknowledged that the operation cost of the Hai Van Tunnel 2 might be about 150 billion VND per year, while the project cost jumped over the line due to a lack of 1,180 billion VND of the state capital that was commited by the Government. In addition, the amendment on toll fee rules at La Son – Tuy Loan station for reimbursement of the project on the signed contract was still not approved by the authoritized agencies.
“We mobilized thounsands of billion VND for this investment and completed the construction following the contract articles, however, to date, the bank is restructuring the debt hence the group must focus on paying the current debt by ourselves and have no money for the tunnel operation”, said Mr Thang. “If the governmental authorities commit to implement the disbursement of the capital, the group will keep working with the bank and put the Hai Van Tunnel 2 in use”.
It has been known that the Ministry of Transport has reported to the Government about the obstacles in the financial option of the project Hai Van Tunnel 2; in particular, the Ministry recommended that the Government should prepare the 1,180 billion VND of the State budget soon in the mid-term investment plan from 2021 – 2025 to support the project according to the articles and commitments in the contract.
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