Tendering for northern Lach Huyen Port project delayed

The Haiphong project’s Package 6 and a budget blow out have put the project on the back foot. Tendering preparations of Package 6, for a 600 metre retaining wall, retaining dike and container wharf maintenance works, were delayed by about three months.

“The deadline for submitting tendering documents for Package 6 is September 24, 2012. Therefore, if things go on smoothly the first contractor will be selected in 2012’s fourth quarter,” said Vietnam Maritime Administration’s  Maritime II Project Management Unit deputy director Tran Duc Duy.

Package 6 is a big technical  package with a tender price of VND3.361 trillion ($161.59 million).  
A month ago, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) had to reject Package 6’s preliminary tendering results under Lach Huyen’s Tan Vu highway project when a sole Japanese contractor submitted bidding documents.   

When key components of Package 6 are completed, developers can start building two wharfs worth VND6.572 trillion ($315.96 million), under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme by Haiphong International Port Company Limited at the end of December, 2012.  

Lach Huyen port and Tan Vu highway projects are also facing budget blow outs, meaning the VND34.07 trillion ($1.638 billion) capital will need to be topped up.  

“If there are no effective measures to hasten work it will badly affect Lach Huyen port project’s effectiveness. The project’s total costs have jumped up to VND38 trillion ($1.827 billion),”  said a Vietnam Association of Ports source.

Compared with the  approved investment plans in June 2010, construction costs of Tan Vu highway linking Lach Huyen port and Hanoi-Haiphong expressway have increased by VND4.269 trillion ($205.24 million) due to changes in design and scale.