Đà Nẵng Power Company will continue providing electricity to operate Hải Vân Tunnel despite the tunnel manager’s failure to pay power bills since last month, the power company’s director Ngô Tân Cư confirmed on Monday.—Photo zing.vn

ĐÀ NẴNG — Đà Nẵng Power Company will continue providing electricity to operate Hải Vân Tunnel despite the tunnel manager’s failure to pay power bills since last month, the power company’s director Ngô Tân Cư confirmed on Monday.

Cư said the Hải Vân Tunnel Management and Operation Company, HAMADECO, did not pay its power bill of nearly VNĐ2.7 billion (US$116,000).

The power supplier asked for payment three times but HAMADECO delayed paying, Cư said. He added that HAMADECO’s delay violated the Law on Electricity and their contract and negatively affected the power company’s business.

“However, as Hải Vân Tunnel plays a key role in the country’s traffic from the north to the south, Đà Nẵng Power Company will not stop providing service,” Cư said.

Meanwhile, the delay is said to be down to HAMADECO’s main contractor – the Đèo Cả Investment Joint Stock Company – failing to pay HAMADECO for months.

On August 30, HAMADECO director general Nguyễn Xuân Hưởng sent a written payment request to Đèo Cả company but the problem was not resolved.

Đèo Cả company has paid HAMADECO its operation fee for the first quarter of this year.

Phạm Minh Đức, deputy director general of Đèo Cả company, told online newspaper vietnamnet.vn that the company paid HAMADECO about VNĐ100 billion yearly for management and operation, but now “it is impossible to pay.”

Đức said under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract signed between his company and the Ministry of Transport, the company will collect toll fees at two stations – Nam Hải Vân starting in 2017 and La Sơn-Túy Loan starting in 2019 – to get back its investment.

However, Đức said the investor was previously not allowed to collect tolls at Nam Hải Vân Station because there was another toll station at the other end of Hải Vân Tunnel, about 12 kilometres away.

He added the transport ministry asked the Government to not open La Sơn-Túy Loan Toll Station, meaning that Đèo Cả company struggled to pay HAMADECO.

All relevant parties are asking transport ministry for solutions.

Hải Vân Tunnel, which is 6.28 kilometres long and runs between Thừa Thiên-Huế Province and Đà Nẵng City, was opened in 2005 after five years of construction. In 2016, Đèo Cả company started upgrading Hải Vân Tunnel and expanding its rescue tunnel under a BOT contract worth VNĐ7.3 trillion (US$323 million). — VNS