Circular No. 03/2021/TT-BGTVT dated February 08, 2021 on providing for management and maintenance of national railway infrastructure

CIRCULAR

PROVIDING FOR MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF NATIONAL RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE

Pursuant to the Law on Construction 2014; Law on Amendments to some Articles of the Law on Construction 2020;

Pursuant to the Law on Railway Transport 2017;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP dated May 12, 2015 on management of quality and maintenance of construction works;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP dated June 18, 2015 on management of construction projects;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 42/2017/ND-CP dated April 05, 2017 on amendments to some Articles of the Government’s Decree No. 59/2015/ND-CP dated June 18, 2015 on management of construction projects;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 32/2019/ND-CP dated April 10, 2019 on assignment, order placement or bidding for product and public service provision using state budget from recurrent expenditure;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 12/2017/ND-CP dated February 10, 2017 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport;

At the request of the Director General of the Transport Infrastructure Department and Director General of the Vietnam Railway Authority;

The Minister of Transport hereby promulgates a Circular providing for management and maintenance of national railway infrastructure.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

1. This Circular provides for management and maintenance of national railway infrastructure.

2. Regarding the storm and flood relief and recovery, regulations of the Ministry of Transport on flood and storm preparedness, relief and recovery, disaster response, and rescue during railway operations shall be complied with.

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Circular applies to organizations and individuals related to management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of national railway works in which the State invests.

Article 3. Definitions

1. “railway work maintenance procedure” means a document providing regulations on processes, requirements and instructions on maintenance of a work.

2. “maintenance of a railway work” means a collection of activities aimed at ensuring and maintaining the applicability and safety of the work in compliance with design requirements during the process of using and operating that work.

3. “inspection of a railway work” means the observation being conducted visually or using specialized equipment to assess the current condition of the work in order to promptly detect signs of deterioration or damage to the work or equipment installed therein, thereby taking timely corrective actions. The railway work inspections include regular, periodic and unscheduled inspections.

4. “monitoring of a railway work” means an act of monitoring, measuring and recording any geometrical change, deformation, distortion, transition, and other technical specifications of the work and its ambient environment over periods of time.

5. “inspection of quality of a work” means the inspection and assessment of quality or causes for damage, value, useful life and other technical specifications of a part of the work or equipment installed in the work or railway work through the monitoring and testing associated with calculation and analysis.

6. “servicing of a railway work” means the supervision, caring and repair of minor defects of the work or equipment installed in the work which are carried out in a regular or periodic manner to to maintain the normal operation and usage status and restrict any possible defect of the work.

7. “repair of a railway work” means the correction, restoration, improvement or replacement of any defect of a part, equipment or structural component of the work or the entire work that is discovered during its operation in order to ensure applicability and safety of the work and rail transport safety. The railway work repairs include periodic and unscheduled repairs:

a) Periodic repair of a railway work means the repair of any defect or improvement or replacement of a damaged part or equipment installed in this work which is carried out in a periodic manner in accordance with the maintenance procedure or plan which has been already approved;

b) Unscheduled repair of a railway work means the repair of part or whole of the work that is damaged due to unexpected effects such as wind, storm, flood, earthquake, collision, fire and others, or of part or whole of the work that shows any sign of degradation to the extent of adverse effect on safe use and operation of the work.

8. “state-funded public service provider” means an enterprise or organization which performs one or more tasks of management and maintenance of railway infrastructure under order contracts with competent authorities.

9. “national railway infrastructure enterprise” means a unit to which national railway infrastructure is assigned, leased out or transferred by the State as prescribed by law.

Chapter II

MANAGEMENT OF RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE OF RAILWAY WORKS

Article 4. Requirements for management of railway infrastructure

1. Management of railway infrastructure shall be uniformly performed in a manner that clearly delegates power and responsibility to each authority and unit and responsibility for cooperation between authorities and units.

2. State management by regulatory bodies shall be separated from business activities of enterprises.

3. All railway infrastructure shall be assigned by the State to eligible managers, users and commercial operators as prescribed by law.

Article 5. Contents of management of railway infrastructure

1. Managing railway infrastructure assets according to regulations of law.

2. Managing financial resources for management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of railway works.

3. Managing formulation, promulgation, announcement and implementation of standards and technical regulations; norms, unit prices, unit costs and quality of railway public services.

4. Managing formulation, appraisal, approval and authorization of plans for, deciding on methods for implementing and organizing management and maintenance of railway infrastructure.

5. Managing formulation, appraisal and approval of plans and funding for and organizing prevention, control and mitigation of consequences of floods, storms, disasters and railway accidents.

6. Managing and protecting railway infrastructure.

7. Keeping dossiers on potential railway accident black spots and locations that reduce the train throughput or route capacity; the number of railway accidents and determination of primary causes of each accident.

8. Updating the dossiers on management of railway infrastructure to the database for monitoring and managerial purposes. Components and contents of dossiers shall be subject to regulations laid down in Article 6 hereof.

9. Updating data on railway infrastructure to the system for management, monitoring and supervision of national railway work maintenance in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Transport.

10. Examining, inspecting, supervising, and handling complaints or denunciations, imposing penalties for any violation of laws on management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of railway works as prescribed.

11. Making legally-required periodic or ad-hoc reports.

Article 6. Dossiers on management of railway infrastructure

1. Dossiers on management of railway infrastructure shall be compiled for each railway work, including dossier on technical management of works and dossier on railway safety corridor management for the purposes of management, operation and maintenance of works in accordance with regulations of law on construction.

2. Dossiers on technical management of works shall be compiled for each work or work item on each railway line and within each scope of management (block, section). Dossiers on technical management of works include dossier on management, operation and maintenance of works as specified in Clause 3 Article 12 of the Circular No. 26/2016/TT-BXD ; dossier on completion of works maintenance prescribed by the railway work maintenance procedures and this Appendix. Composition:

a) A dossier on management, operation and maintenance of railway works is composed of:

A decision on approval for construction project and construction investment feasibility study report or construction investment techno-economic report;

Survey tasks and report on construction survey;

Construction drawing documents certified by the investor (enclosed with a list of drawings) and revisions the design during the construction;

As-built drawing (enclosed with a list of drawings);

Results of monitoring, measurement and inspection of quality of works, testing of bearing capacity of the work structure (if any) during the construction, list of equipment, components and reserved materials and other relevant documents;

A profile of the equipment installed in works;

Works operation procedure; works maintenance procedure;

Work incidents records (if any);

The investor’s records on commissioning of work items and constructions prior to operation;

The specialized construction authority’s notifications of approval for commissioning of work items and construction works.

b) Dossiers on completion of railway work maintenance include:

Dossier on completion of works servicing: contents and composition of the dossier shall comply with Article 53 of the Railway work maintenance procedures approved by the Ministry of Transport in the Decision No. 2320/QD-BGTVT dated June 30, 2015; document confirming completion of railway work servicing;

Dossier on completion of periodic repair of works: contents and composition of the dossier shall comply with Article 54 of the Railway work maintenance procedures approved by the Ministry of Transport in the Decision No. 2320/QD-BGTVT dated June 30, 2015;

Dossier on completion of unscheduled repair of works: contents and composition of the dossier shall comply with Article 55 of the Railway work maintenance procedures approved by the Ministry of Transport in the Decision No. 2320/QD-BGTVT dated June 30, 2015;

Technical profile and logbook for inspection and monitoring of works: a technical profile and inspection and monitoring logbook shall be prepared for each work (A technical profile shall clearly specify the technical specifications and primary status of the work, changes to structure through repairs and reinforcement, incidents occurring during operation, results of regular and periodical inspections, results of work quality inspection; an inspection and monitoring logbook shall document results of inspection and monitoring of damage to each work; the logbook is bound into a book bearing seals of the manager on adjoining edges of pages; each logbook may document one or more works depending on the current management of works; at the end of the year, the logbook must be sent to the manager for the purposes of archiving, inspection and comparison);

General management dossier: A general management dossier includes include a railway line plan; general layout plan of railway station and shortened longitudinal profile of railway line (a sketch of railway line has a scale of 1/500. Range of the sketch: length by route range; minimum width within the area of land area for rail transport and the work items of the railway. The sketch must fully show the factors: plane, topography, terrain, railway works, safety perimeters of works, safety corridors and railway boundary markers. It must be regularly updated whenever there is a change or fluctuation in related factors. A sample sketch is provided in the enclosed drawing. A general layout plan of a railway station (1/500 scale) must fully show the factors: topography, terrain and relevant auxiliary works; safety perimeters of works, safety corridors, boundary markers; statistical tables of railway turnouts, railway superstructure, curve and length of the railway station; the general layout plan must be updated regularly whenever there is a change or fluctuation in relevant factors; a sample general layout plan is provided in the enclosed drawing);

A shortened longitudinal profile of a railway line (height: 1/200 and length: 1/1000) must fully show the factors: plane, slope, railway superstructure and relevant auxiliary works; it must be updated regularly whenever there is a change or fluctuation in relevant factors. A sample general layout plan is provided in the enclosed drawing.

3. A dossier on railway safety corridor management must be compiled for each railway line and by communal-, district- and provincial-level administrative division and certified by the district-level People’s Committee for managerial purpose. The dossier includes:

a) A sketch of works and railway safety corridors, which fully specifies main factors, especially locations and scale of works encroaching upon and violating railway safety corridors;

b) A dossier on illegal crossing, which must be separately prepared for monitoring and management purposes to ensure rail and road transport safety;

c) A dossier on management of collector roads located within railway safety corridor, which is composed of as-built dossier, design dossier, construction permit and other relevant documents;

d) A dossier on management of fences separating railways and roads, which is composed of as-built dossier, design dossier and other relevant documents;

dd) A dossier on marks, fences and boundary markers of land for rail transport, which is made in accordance with prevailing regulations; records on transfer of marks, boundary lines and boundary markers of land if railway safety corridors (if any);

e) Written commitments (if any) made by households along railway safety corridors and certified by the administrative division that they will not encroach or re-encroach upon safety perimeter of the railway work.

Article 7. Requirements for maintenance of railway works

1. Maintenance of railway works shall be subject to the annual maintenance plan and railway work maintenance procedures which have been approved by competent authorities; shall be organized as prescribed in this Circular.

2. Maintenance of railway works must ensure safety of humans, property and these works themselves; assure safe and continuous traffic; fire safety and environmental safety.

3. The maintenance of railway works must be carried out in accordance with technical regulations and standards and maintenance procedures corresponding to such works which have been approved by competent authorities.

4. For the construction tasks that have not been included in the system of norms and construction cost estimate that have been published or have been included in the system of norms and construction cost estimate but have failed to conform to specific technical requirements, construction conditions and methods applicable to the works that are being constructed, regulations of law on management of construction investment.

Article 8. Contents of maintenance of railway works

Maintenance of railway works shall comprise one, certain or all of the following activities: examination, monitoring and inspection of quality, servicing, repair and renovation of railway works but excluding those that may change functions or scale of these works in accordance with requirements specified in the railway work maintenance procedures approved by the Ministry of Transport and regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works.

Article 9. Dossiers on maintenance of railway works

A dossier on railway work maintenance includes:

1. Documents serving railway work maintenance: railway work maintenance procedure; as-built drawing (if any); profile of equipment installed in the railway work; file on basic conditions of the railway work; dossier on railway work servicing of railway works; dossier on railway work repair.

2. Annual national railway work maintenance plan approved by the Ministry of Transport;

3. Results of regular, periodic and unscheduled inspections of the railway work (if any);

4. Results of annual servicing and repair of the railway work;

5. Results of monitoring and inspection of quality of the railway work (if any);

6. Results of assessment of safe bearing capacity and safe operation of the work during its operation (if any);

7. Other dossiers and documents relating to railway work maintenance.

Article 10. Assessment of safe bearing capacity and safe operation of railway works during their operation

1. Any large-scale work with complicated technical requirements affecting its safety in accordance with regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works shall undergo a periodic or unscheduled assessment of safe bearing capacity and safe operation during its operation.

2. Assessment contents and procedures shall comply with regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works.

3. Every railway infrastructure enterprises shall inspect, supervise and propose a plan for assessment of safe bearing capacity and safe operation of works and submit it to the Vietnam Railway Authority for inspection and handling as prescribed by law.

Article 11. Handling of railway works that pose a risk of danger to safety during their operation

1. A railway infrastructure enterprise to which the railway infrastructure is assigned, leased out or transferred by the State has the responsibility to:

a) On a regular basis, keep watch and carry out supervisions, inspections and monitoring to promptly discover any defect or degradation of a work, part thereof or equipment installed therein which threatens safety during its operation;

b) When discovering any railway work that poses a risk of danger to safety for its operation process, report such emergency case to the Vietnam Railway Authority; and concurrently comply with the regulations laid down in Clause 1 Article 44 of the Government's Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP .

2. When discovering or receiving any report on any railway work posing a risk of danger to safety for its operation, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall carry out an inspection and request the Ministry of Transport to issue its decision to take proper actions.

3. In case of any incident arising during the operation process, handling of such incident shall be subject to the regulations laid down in Chapter VI of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP .

Article 12. Handling of railway works of which useful life could be extended upon expiry

1. According to the dossier on railway infrastructure management, every railway infrastructure enterprise shall report useful life of the works that are being operated to the Vietnam Railway Authority.

2. Expired railway works are those of which the period of use and operation is greater than the useful life specified in the design documentation. If the design documentation is lost or does not specify the useful life, the useful life shall be determined according to relevant technical standards and regulations or results achieved after inspection of quality of railway works.

3. At least one year prior to the expiry date, if wishing to continue to operate railway works, railway infrastructure enterprises or organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall report thereon to the Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Railway Authority to carry out examination, inspection and assessment of current quality of each work and repair any defect (if any) in order to ensure maintain useful effects and safety during its operation.

4. The Vietnam Railway Authority shall organize the handling, report and propose a plan and roadmap for handling of the abovementioned works as prescribed by law to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and decision.

Article 13. Monitoring of railway works and parts thereof during their operation

1. Monitoring of railway works and parts thereof during their operation shall be required with respect to:

a) Railway works prescribed by regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works.

b) Works required in the railway work maintenance procedures;

c) Railway works which may be collapsed due to subsidence, tilt, cracking and other abnormalities;

d) Other railway works that may result in upon the occurrence of an incident at the request of railway infrastructure enterprises.

2. Monitoring of parts of railway works shall focus on the main load bearing structure of which any damage may lead to the entire collapse.

3. Monitoring of railway works shall provide the following information: monitoring positions, parameters and their limit values (deformation, tilt, subsidence, cracking or sag), monitoring duration, number of measurement cycles and other necessary information. The monitoring plan must include the measurement method, measuring instruments, zoning plan and configuration of markers; organization of monitoring activities; approaches to processing measurement data and other necessary information.

4. Railway work enterprises shall inspect and propose monitoring of railway works and parts thereof during their operation to include them in the annual railway work maintenance plan.

5. The Vietnam Railway Authority shall:

a) carry out monitoring of railway works and parts thereof during their operation and make a report on the monitoring results in which monitoring data must be assessed and compared to the allowable limit already referred to in relevant technical standards and regulations; proceed to assess safety of railway works in accordance with prevailing regulations;

b) Report the monitoring results, propose and recommend the Ministry of Transport to take timely remedial actions if measurement data exceeds the allowable limit or any abnormality occurs;

6. Organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall prepare the monitoring outline for submission to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its appraisal and approval; shall be accorded the discretionary power to approve the estimate of monitoring costs, carry out monitoring activities and make a report as prescribed by Point a Clause 5 of this Article.

7. The monitoring of railway works and parts thereof during their operation shall be carried out in accordance with regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works.

Article 14. Application of technical standards, regulations and techno-economic norms to maintenance of railway works

1. Servicing of railway works:

a) Conforming to technical standards, regulations or techno-economic norms issued by competent authorities;

b) With respect to work items without economic - technical norms, applying respective norms of industries or local jurisdictions which have already been issued by competent authorities after obtaining approval from the Ministry of Transport.

2. Periodic or unscheduled repairs of railway works shall conform to regulations of laws on investment and construction and other relevant regulations of law.

Chapter III

ORGANIZATION OF MAINTENANCE OF RAILWAY WORKS

Article 15. Formulation, approval and modification of plans for maintenance of railway works

1. Formulation of a plan for maintenance of national railway works:

a) Depending on technical conditions of railway works, transportation demands of each railway line currently in operation, maintenance procedures, economic - technical norms, state regulations in force, every railway infrastructure enterprise shall review, aggregate quantities and draw up plans for maintenance of railway works under its management on an annual basis or over the plan period according to technical - economic norms and safety assurance plan, including the following duties such as servicing, periodic repair, inspection, monitoring, unscheduled repair and other activities (if any) by using the form given in the Appendix 1 hereof. A bill of quantities shall be submitted to the Vietnam Railway Authority before May 15 every year to serve the inspection and review of railway work maintenance plans;

b) The plan for maintenance of railway works shall be made enclosing the summary of technical conditions of railway works (using the form given in Appendix 2 hereof) and sent to the Vietnam Railway Authority before the June 15 every year for inspection and review of the maintenance plan and submission to the Ministry of Transport;

c) The annual plan for maintenance of railway works shall include the plan for servicing and periodic repair of each line and other affairs (if any). The plan for maintenance of railway works must provide the following information in full: name of each railway work and work item; unit, quantities and estimated budget for implementation of that plan; implementation time; implementation approaches and priority degree.

2. Approve of the plan for maintenance of national railway works:

a) Within 10 working days from the receipt of all required documents, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall be inspect, review and submit the plan to the Ministry of Transport;

b) Based on the plan for maintenance of railway works submitted by the Vietnam Railway Authority, the Ministry of Transport shall review the plan, prepare the general plan and record the estimated costs of maintenance of railway works into the annual estimate of state budget revenues and expenditures of the Ministry of Transport for submission to the Ministry of Finance before July 20 every year;

c) After receipt of the notification of the annual estimate of state budget revenues and expenditures from the Ministry of Finance and amounts of estimated state budget revenues and expenditures from the Ministry of Transport, the railway infrastructure enterprise shall review and modify the plan and estimate of costs of railway work maintenance consistent with allocated funding sources; prepare a dossier for submission to the Vietnam Railway Authority for inspection and review purposes for submission to the Ministry of Transport in accordance with Points a and b of this Clause. The periodic or unscheduled repair and storm, flood and disaster relief and recovery may be integrated into the engineering plan after receipt of the investment approval decision from a competent authority in accordance with regulations in force, unless otherwise permitted by the Minister of Transport;

d) The Ministry of Transport shall appraise and approve the plan and the estimate of costs of railway work maintenance after receipt of all required documents on the plan for railway work maintenance, the verification report and opinions from relevant regulatory authorities and units (if any).

3. Modification of the plan for maintenance of national railway works:

a) The plan shall be modified or supplemented during its implementation to make it compatible with technical conditions of railway works;

b) The railway infrastructure enterprise shall prepare a dossier on modification of the plan and submit it to the Vietnam Railway Authority before October 01 every year. The Vietnam Railway Authority shall inspect, review and submit it to the Ministry of Transport before October 15 every year for consideration and decision;

c) The Ministry of Transport shall decide on whether modification of the maintenance plan is approved by October 31 every year.

4. Organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall draw up, approve and modify the plan for maintenance of railway works that they have received under the transfer contract.

Article 16. Implementation of the plan for maintenance of railway works

1. With respect to national state-invested railways, based on the approved annual plan for maintenance of railway works, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall preside over and cooperate with railway infrastructure enterprises in organizing implementation of this plan in accordance with regulations in force; take legal responsibility for quality of maintained national railway works.

2. Maintenance of railway works or railway equipment which is funded by the state budget shall be carried out as follows:

a) As for servicing of railway works:

Based on the approved maintenance plan, the Vietnam Railway Authority place orders under contracts for public services funded by the state budget with public service providers. Contents of the orders include: servicing of railway works; management and supervision of servicing of railway works.

Every public service provider shall draw up a public utilities pricing plan under the signed contract and submit it to the Vietnam Railway Authority for inspection and review purposes so as for the Vietnam Railway Authority to submit it to the Ministry of Transport for appraisal and approval.

Based on the pricing plan approved by the Ministry of Transport, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall modify the above order contract signed with the public service providers and organize the performance thereof as prescribed.

c) As for the periodic or unscheduled repair specified in the approved maintenance plan, assign the Vietnam Railway Authority to carry out appraisal, grant approval and organize the implementation thereof in accordance with regulations of law on construction and relevant regulations of law;

b) As for the unscheduled repair not specified in the approved maintenance plan, follow the instructions below:

As for unscheduled repair of a national railway work or part thereof which is damaged due to owing to rainstorm, flood, earthquake or other natural disaster, regulations the Minister of Transport on flood and storm preparedness, relief and recovery, disaster response, and rescue during railway operations shall be complied with.

As for unscheduled repair of a national railway work or part thereof which is damaged due to other causes, the Ministry of Transport shall authorize the Vietnam Railway Authority to grant approval and then send a review report to the Ministry of Transport.

3. The Ministry of Transport shall inspect and supervise the implementation of plans for maintenance of state-invested national railway works as prescribed.

4. Organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall the implementation of plans for maintenance of their transferred railway works themselves.

Article 17. Inspection, servicing, repair and assessment of safety of railway works

1. State-funded public service providers shall carry out inspection and servicing of railway works under the order contract and the approved maintenance procedures.

2. The inspection, servicing and repair of railway works; assessment of safety of railway works during their operation including safe bearing capacity and safe operation of railway works shall be subject to regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works and regulations set out in this Circular.

3. Inspection of quality of railway works shall be subject to regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works. The formulation and submission of the outline and estimate of costs of inspection of railway works shall be subject to the following regulations:

a) With respect to national state-invested railways, based on the approved maintenance plan, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall select an organization to carry out inspection activities under regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works;

b) Organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall formulate the outline and submit it to the Vietnam Railway Authority for appraisal and approval; approve the estimate and carry out inspection activities themselves.

Article 18. Management of quality of maintenance of railway works

1. The Vietnam Railway Authority, railway infrastructure enterprises, organizations and individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested railway infrastructure, state-funded public service providers, organizations and individuals involved in railway work maintenance shall assume responsibility for quality management under regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works and regulations set out in this Circular.

2. The Vietnam Railway Authority and state-funded public service providers shall build a system for management of quality of maintenance of railway works to fulfill the objectives and requirements for maintenance of national railway works. The railway work maintenance quality management must have a clear, specific and detailed organizational chart which defines responsibilities of each individual, authority and department for management and maintenance of railway infrastructure.

3. Conduct tests or request suppliers to fully present certificate of testing or decision on permission for use of materials, structural components, supplies, equipment, accessories and fasteners for maintenance of railway works.

4. Prepare and fully write the work maintenance logbook as prescribed. Carry out internal commissioning before preparing a commissioning request to confirm that the assurance of quality of maintenance has fulfilled the objectives and requirements for maintenance of national railway works. The internal commissioning must be made into a document which constitutes part of the dossier on railway work maintenance.

5. The duration of warranty of repair of railway works shall be subject to regulations of law on management of quality and maintenance of construction works.

6. Management of quality of maintenance of national railway works must be subject to applicable technical regulations and standards and regulations on criteria for supervision and commissioning of maintenance of national railway infrastructure assets of the Ministry of Transport.

Article 19. Periodic reporting during management and maintenance of railway infrastructure

1. Railway infrastructure enterprises, public service providers, and organizations and individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested railway infrastructure shall submit a periodic report on the contents within their within the jurisdiction specified in this Circular and law on rail transport.

a) Title of the report: Báo cáo định kỳ kết quả thực hiện công tác quản lý, bảo trì kết cấu hạ tầng đường sắt (“Periodic report on management and maintenance of railway infrastructure”).

b) The report shall fully specify the following: tasks; quantities and funding approved by the Ministry of Transport or adjusted in the plan for management and maintenance of railway infrastructure; quality of performance of tasks, results of commissioning and payment; proposals and recommendations (if any).

c) Regulated entities: railway infrastructure enterprises, public service providers, and organizations and individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested railway infrastructure.

d) Receiving authority: Vietnam Railway Authority.

dd) Report submission and receipt methods: the report is in physical form and submitted via the information system for management, monitoring and supervision of national railway work maintenance.

e) Submission deadline: before July 15 every year for a first-half year report; before January 15 of the next month for an annual report;

g) Reporting frequency: twice a year.

h) Data collection period: from January 01 to June 30 for a first-half year report; from January 01 to December 31 for an annual report.

i) Report form: using the Form No. 01 in the Appendix 03 hereof.

2. Based on the periodic report, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall supplement the remaining contents included in the maintenance plan and make a consolidated periodic report on implementation of the plan for management and maintenance of national railway infrastructure.

a) Title of the report: Báo cáo định kỳ kết quả thực hiện công tác quản lý, bảo trì kết cấu hạ tầng đường sắt (“Periodic report on management and maintenance of railway infrastructure”).

b) The report shall fully specify the tasks approved by the Ministry of Transport or adjusted in the plan for management and maintenance of railway infrastructure; quality of implementation, results of commissioning and payment; proposals and recommendations (if any).

c) Regulated entity: Vietnam Railway Authority.

d) Receiving authority: Ministry of Transport.

dd) Report submission methods: the report is in physical form and bears the signature and seal of the authority or unit; it is submitted online via the information system for management, monitoring and supervision of national railway work maintenance using the digital signature.

e) Submission deadline: before July 30 every year for a first-half year report; before January 31 of the next month for an annual report;

g) Reporting frequency: twice a year.

h) Data collection period: from January 01 to June 30 for a first-half year report; from January 01 to December 31 for an annual report.

i) Report form: using the Form No. 02 in the Appendix 03 hereof.

Article 20. Responsibility for management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of railway works

1. Specialized railway authorities have the responsibility to:

a) Organize management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of national railway works as prescribed; take legal responsibility for quality of maintenance of national railway works.

b) Manage and use financial resources for management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of national railway works.

c) Examine, inspect, supervise, and handle complaints or denunciations, impose penalties for any violation of laws on management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of railway works;

d) Comply with other regulations within their jurisdictions related to management and maintenance of railway works as prescribed by law.

2. Railway infrastructure enterprises have the responsibility to:

a) Maintain railway works as prescribed by law which are assigned, leased out and transferred to them;

b) Operate railway infrastructure according to regulations of law;

c) Protect railway infrastructure to ensure safe and continuous rail transport;

d) Take legal responsibility for any incident or degradation that occurs due to their failure to carry out maintenance work as prescribed;

dd) Comply with other regulations of law within their jurisdictions related to management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of railway works as prescribed by law.

3. State-funded public service providers shall exercise their rights and obligations as prescribed in Article 27 of the Government’s Decree No. 32/2019/ND-CP dated April 10, 2019.

4. Organizations and individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested railway infrastructure shall assume responsibility for managing railway infrastructure and maintaining railway works under contracts with regulatory bodies and legal responsibility for any incident or degradation occurring due to their failure to maintain works as prescribed.

Chapter IV

COSTS OF MAINTENANCE OF RAILWAY WORKS

Article 21. Funding sources for maintenance of railway works

1. Funding for maintenance of state-invested railway works shall be derived from the following sources:

a) State budget;

b) Other legitimate revenues.

2. Organizations or individuals that are transferees in a fixed-term contract for transfer or lease of the rights of operation and commercial operation of the state-invested national railway infrastructure shall provide funding for maintenance of their transferred railway works under the transfer contract with a competent authority.

3. The management and use of funding for maintenance of railway works shall subject to prevailing regulations.

Article 22. Costs of maintenance of railway works

1. Specific costs incurred from maintenance activities shall include:

a) Cost of formulation and verification of railway work maintenance procedures and techno-economic norms for maintenance of railway works;

b) Cost of performance of annual maintenance tasks, including cost of formulation of the plan for maintenance of railway works (including costs incurred from plan formulation, estimation, inspection and verification of maintenance costs and other relevant costs);

c) Cost of regular, periodic and unscheduled inspection of railway works;

d) Cost of servicing of railway works;

dd) Cost of periodic and unscheduled repair of railway works;

e) Cost of inspection and assessment of quality of railway works;

f) Costs of preparation and management of dossiers on railway infrastructure maintenance; cost of building and updating database of railway infrastructure serving maintenance of railway works;

g) Costs of railway work monitoring; cost of assessment of safe bearing capacity and safe operation of railway works during their operation;

h) Other relevant necessary costs.

2. Determination of costs of management and maintenance of railway works shall be subject to guidelines prescribed by relevant law provisions.

Chapter V

IMPLEMENTATION CLAUSE

Article 23. Effect

This Circular comes into force from March 15, 2021 and supersedes the Circular No. 16/2018/TT-BGTVT dated April 04, 2018 of the Minister of Transport, except for the case specified in Clause 1 Article 24 of this Circular.

Article 24. Transitional clauses

Regarding the formulation, approval and implementation of a plan for maintenance of national railway works, follow the instructions below:

1. Any work or task that has been approved and is being implemented until the effective date of this Circular and has not been completed shall continue to be implemented as prescribed in the Circular No. 16/2018/TT-BGTVT dated April 04, 2018 of the Minister of Transport.

2. Any task performed after the effective date of this Circular shall be performed in accordance with this Circular.

Article 25. Implementation

1. Chief of the Ministry Office, the Chief Inspector of the Ministry, Directors General and Director General of Vietnam Railway Authority, heads of agencies, units, organizations and individuals concerned are responsible for the implementation of this Circular.

2. Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and resolution./.