HCM CITY — The Prime Minister has agreed in principle to allow the HCM City administration to apply bidding selection forms in special cases under Article 26 of the Law on Bidding to select a contractor for a tidal flood control project for the city.

Under Article 26, in special cases of bidding selection, the city shall prepare a plan for selection of the contractor and submit it to the PM for consideration and decision.

The contractor under the consultancy and supervision bidding package will implement the first phase of the tidal flood-control project in HCM City with consideration of climate change factors under the build-transfer (BT) model.

The PM has authorised the chairman of city’s People’s Committee to work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment for the bidding selection process in accordance with the bidding law, and the city must be responsible for its decision.  

The city must ensure that the selected contractors meet the requirements of capacity and experience required by the bidding package, including quality in terms of technical, schedule, cost and economic efficiency.

The contractor must monitor strictly the stages of the implementation of the project, which would not cause loss and waste in the implementation process.

HCM City is carrying out a flood control project in 19 out of 24 districts involving an area of 570 square kilometres and a population of 6.5 million, according to the Steering Centre of the Urban Flood Control Programme (SCFC).

The project is expected to control flooding and mitigate the effects of climate change.

It is funded by loans from the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and funds from the city, according to the SCFC.

It will see the construction of six culverts with a width of 40-160 metres and an embankment of nearly 7.8 kilometres along the Sài Gòn River.

Three pumping stations with a capacity of 12-48 cubic metres per second and 25 small drains will also be built, according to the city administration.  

Sluices and tide control locks will be installed on the Nước Lên Canal and Vàm Thuật River.

In addition, 32.7 kilometres of dams will be built on the Tham Lương, Bến Cát, and Nước Lên Canals, and nine kilometres of drainage in Gò Vấp District.

Water channels in Tân Bình and Gò Vấp districts will be upgraded.

The project will require more than VNĐ9.5 trillion ($426 million), with VNĐ8.76 trillion ($393 million) coming from ODA and the rest from the city, according to SCFC.  

Nguyễn Tâm Tiến, general director of Trung Nam Investment, Construction Joint-Stock Co, said a downpour on August 26 dumped 150mm of rain in two hours. The city’s sewer system can handle no more than 100mm of rain over three hours, he said.

“The flood control project will help effectively resolve flooding caused by high tides,” he said.

At a recent meeting, city authorities said they would earmark more than VNĐ156 trillion ($7 billion) for anti-flooding projects over the next five years. — VNS