The Chinese chief contractor and three agencies in charge of an infamous urban railway project in Hanoi have received a warning from Vietnam’s railway watchdog over repeated labor safety violations.

These firms were admonished for “causing many accidents related to labor safety” on the Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway project, Vietnam’s Project Management Unit of Railway, which oversees all railway projects in the country, said on Thursday.

The warning was given to the project’s EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor, China Railway Sixth Group; its consultant firms, the Construction Supervision Co. Ltd. under the Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute and Vietnam’s Institute for Transport Science and Technology; and the subcontractor, Vietnamese construction firm Topaco.

The admonishments came two days after a bar of steel fell from a construction site of the project onto a four-seat car traveling below, almost killing the driver.

The Tuesday incident was the latest in a series of accidents related to the Chinese-funded Cat Linh – Ha Dong project which “affects the trust of the public as well as the reputation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport,” according to the Project Management Unit of Railway.

The project management unit thus requested that labor safety be tightened at all construction sites of the project. The EPC contractor and the consultant firms must also levy punishments on their employees and those of the sub-contractor who are responsible for the accident, it said.

The Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway project broke ground in October 2011, at an initial investment estimate of $552 million, $419 million of which is Chinese development assistance loans.

The Vietnam Railway Authority, under the transport ministry, is the project developer.

The EPC contractor, China Railway Sixth Group, is a subsidiary of construction conglomerate China Railway Group. Under an EPC contract, the contractor designs the installation, procures the necessary materials and builds the project.

Last month, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a proposal to borrow $250.62 million more from China to partly offset the additional capital needed for the completion of the project.

The premier also agreed to adjust the timing of the project so that it will become commercially operational in 2016.

The railway project will use 13 trains provided by China’s Beijing Rolling Stock Equipment Co. under a $63.2 million supply contract.

Local members of the public and experts have objected to the decision to use Chinese trains for the project, but Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang has said it was “force majeure,” or an unavoidable circumstance.

As per the contract signed with the Chinese side, Vietnam is required to buy trains made by Chinese companies, so the decision to buy 13 Chinese-made trains is “unchangeable,” Thang told reporters in Hanoi early June.

Scandalous project

The Chinese-contracted Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway project has been hit by a grim series of scandals since groundbreaking.

In June the project was blasted as locals noticed its rails are wavelike and comparable to those of a roller coaster.

The wavy parts of the railway can easily be seen with the naked eye, raising safety concerns among local experts and members of the public.

In late January, Nguyen Huu Thang, head of the Vietnam Railway Authority, was found dead for an unknown reason in his office in Hanoi.

On April 25, 2014, Thang was suspended from his post for 15 days by Transport Minister Dinh La Thang for his "irresponsible statements" to local media about a rise of $339 million in construction costs for the Cat Linh – Ha Dong project.

Thang had said the multimillion-dollar cost overrun was “just a bid of adjustment” and criticized members of the public for “making a fuss about it.”

On December 28, 2014, a 10-meter-long scaffolding of a construction site of the project collapsed suddenly, trapping a taxi with three passengers in the steel rubble as it was driving in the area at the time of the accident.

The driver and passengers managed to get out unharmed.

In mid-November the same year, reels of steel fell from another construction site, killing one person and injuring two others, prompting the transport ministry to suspend construction for a safety review.