Relevant authorities are trying to clear all hurdles to put the Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway into motion as soon as possible so that pressure on the city's transport infrastructure could be eased, Kinhtedothi.vn reported.

The test run of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban rail line was due to have started on June 30, 2015. Thus, it has been delayed by half a decade.

In late March 2020, the Hanoi Party Committee and the Ministry of Transport agreed to set up a task force to build a plan for the project’s final works. Besides, the two parties agreed on a plan to carry out "conditional acceptance" for the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway project and thoroughly address all pending issues related to China Railway Sixth Group - the general contractor of the project.

The Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway needed to be put into commercial run. Photo: Nguyen Quy

Cao Sy Kiem, a former governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, told Kinhtedothi.vn that the Chinese general contractor’s irresponsibility is to be blamed for the project delay.

“The general contractor has not shown the goodwill needed to solve issues of the project even though they know we really want to put the project into commercial operation as soon as possible," Kiem said.

Sharing the same view, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, a transport expert, said that the general contractor also showed signs of deliberately extending the time to shirk responsibility for the delay of the project.

The project still depends on the safety evaluation from the French consultancy Apave-Certifier-Tricc (ACT) consortium before it can be handed over to the Ministry of Transport.

“The addition of dossiers for evaluation is very simple and does not take too much time because we have modern machines and techniques for measurement and evaluation. We only need about half a month to a month, instead of half a year or several years as they have warned,” Thuy argued.

“The Ministry of Transport must also take responsibility for the failure to put the project into operation on time. The ministry must clarify the reasons for the delay," Thuy stressed.

The Cat Linh - Ha Dong project is a first urban railway project in Vietnam. It must be evaluated and certified for system safety by an independent consultancy organization first. Then, the Vietnam Register will evaluate safety dossiers and issue evaluation certificate before the project can start the commercial operation phase.

The railway is one of the key public transport projects in Hanoi. Since September 2018, its rolling stock of 13 trains has been tested, with the average speed of 35 kilometers per hour.

The railway is 13.5 kilometers long from Cat Linh Station in downtown Dong Da district to Yen Nghia Station in the southwestern Ha Dong district, and uses standard-gauge rail track (1,435mm).