Chương I Luật Đường sắt 2017: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Law provides for planning for, investment in, construction, protection, management, maintenance and development of railway infrastructure; railway industry, railway vehicles; railway signals, railway rules and railway safety; railway business; rights and obligations of organizations and individuals involved in railway activities; state management of railway activities.

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Law applies to domestic and foreign organizations and individuals related to railway activities within the territory of Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Article 3. Definitions

For the purposes of this Law, the terms below are construed as follows:

1. “road-rail bridge” means a bridge with deck shared by both railway vehicles and road vehicles.

2. “train operation” means an activity of controlling the movement of railway vehicles.

3. “evident permission” means an evidence permitting railway vehicles to move into a block, and is expressed by color light signals, semaphore signals, line cards, licenses, line notes.

4. “maximum load order” means the regulation on the permissible maximum load per axle and the permissible maximum even-spread load according to the length of railway vehicles, and is applied to each bridge, segment, block, section or railway line.

5. “maximum speed order” means the regulation on the speed limits applied to railway vehicles running on each bridge, segment, block, section or railway line.

6. “railway work” means a work that is built to serve rail transport, including roads, bridges, culverts, tunnels, embankments, retaining walls, stations, depots, sewerage systems, signaling systems, fixed-block signaling systems, power supply systems and other railway works and auxiliary equipment.

7. “railway industry work” means a work that is built to serve the manufacturing, assembly, repair and modification of railway vehicles; manufacturing of specialized components, accessories, supplies and equipment of the railway.

8. “depot” means a place where trains are housed for maintenance, repair and other professional procedures are followed.

9. “level crossing” menas the intersection between the railroad and a road at the same level and the construction and use of which are permitted by a competent authority.

10. “high-speed rail” means a type of electrified double-track national railway which has a speed of at least 200 km/h and a gauge of 1,435 mm.

11. “railway station” means a place where railway vehicles stop, shunt, overtake, pick up or disembark passengers, cargoes are handled, other professional procedures are followed and other services are provided.

12. “overweight cargo” means non-divisible cargo whose weight exceeds the maximum permissible payload of the coach or coaches or the cargo weight and coach weight, once loaded, exceed the maximum permissible limit specified in the published maximum load order.

13. “oversized cargo” means non-divisible cargo whose size, once loaded, exceeds the dimensional limits of the locomotive and the coach of corresponding gauges.

14. “railway activities” include railway planning, railway operation, railway safety assurance and other relevant activities.

15. “railway infrastructure” means railway works, safety perimeter of the railway work and railway safety corridor.

16. “platform” means a railway work in the station in service of passengers getting on or off the train and cargo handling.

17. “track gauge” means the shortest distance between the two inner faces of the rails.

18. “block” means a railway section connecting two adjacent stations, measured from the station-entry signaling position of one station to the nearest station-entry signaling position of the opposite station.

19. “section” means a collection of some blocks and successive railway stations, which is identified according to train operation.

20. “railway infrastructure business” means the performance of one, several or all activities of investing, using, selling, leasing or transferring the right to use railway infrastructure to serve rail transport and other commercial services for profit.

21. “rail transport business” means the transport of passengers, luggage and cargoes by train for profit.

22. “urban railway business” means provision of transport of passengers in urban areas for profit.

23. “illegal crossing” means an intersection with road or railway and is built and used without the permission by competent authorities.

24. “at-grade intersection” means a place where two or more roads cross at the same level

25. “grade-separated junction” means a place where two or more surface transport axes at different heights.

26. “railway vehicle” includes locomotives, coaches and specialized vehicles on rail tracks.

27. “railway line” means one or multiple successive sections, beginning from the first railway station to the terminus.

28. “train” means a railway vehicle formed by locomotives and coaches or single locomotive, motive power coaches, and motive power specialized vehicles moving on rail tracks.

Article 4. Basic rules for railway activities

1. Ensure continuous, orderly, safe, accurate and efficient rail transport; facilitate people’s travel, contribute to socio-economic development, ensure national defense and security, and protect the environment.

2. Develop rail transport according to the planning and plan in combination with other modes of transport and international integration to ensure civilization, modernity and uniformity.

3. Arrange rail transport in a uniform and concentrated manner.

4. Separate the state management by regulatory authorities from business management by enterprises; the railway infrastructure business from state-invested rail transport business.

5. Ensure healthy and fair competition among organizations and individuals of all economic sectors doing railway business.

Article 5. State policies on railway development

1. Give priority to investment in sources for development, upgrade, maintenance and protection of national and urban railway infrastructure to ensure that rail transport plays a key role in national transport system.

2. Encourage, assist, enable and protect rights and legitimate interests of domestic and foreign organizations and individuals involved in investment in railways and railway business.

3. Provide land according to the planning to develop railway infrastructure and railway industry works.

4. Encourage and assist in development of railway industry, research, apply advanced science and technology, high technology, train human resources for development of modern railways.

5. Encourage and enable organizations and individuals to develop the specialized railway system.

6. Give priority to allocation of central government budget to annual and medium-term public investment plan at a reasonable rate to ensure railway infrastructure is developed according to the planning.

The Government shall submit an annual report on the implementation of policy for development of rail transport and use of state budget for investment in rail transport to the National Assembly.

Article 6. Incentives and support for investment in railway activities

1. Railway infrastructure business, rail transport business, urban railway business and railway industry are business lines eligible for investment incentives.

2. An organization or individual involved in railway activities shall be eligible for incentives and support as follows:

a) They are allocated land without paying land levy on the land area used for construction of urban and railway infrastructure; the land for construction of specialized railway infrastructure and railway industrial work shall be exempted from land rent.

b) According to the actual sources, the State shall lend them a fund charged at the interest rate of preferential investment from the State investment or they shall be provided with government-guaranteed loans according to regulations of law on management of public debt for development of national and urban railway infrastructure; investment in and procurement of railway vehicles, machines and equipment for railway maintenance; development of railway industry;

c) The railway infrastructure enterprise, urban railway enterprise and railway industry enterprise shall be eligible for incentives for enterprise income tax rate according to regulations of the Law on Enterprise Income Tax;

d) They shall enjoy exemption from import duties on machines, equipment, components, railway vehicles, raw materials for manufacture of machines and equipment or spare parts of machines and equipment necessary for construction of railway infrastructure that is yet to be domestically produced.

3. An organization or individual invested in construction of national and urban railway infrastructure shall be provided with funding by the State for clearing the land for rail transport that is used for construction of railway infrastructure.

4. An organization or individual doing railway infrastructure business shall be provided with a separate frequency bands in service of the control of rail transport and traction power network in service of train operation.

Article 7. Planning for development of rail transport

1. The planning for development of rail transport provides a basis for investment, development and use of rail network.

2. The planning for development of rail transport includes contents related to railway infrastructure and national railway industry establishments.

3. The planning for development of rail transport must:

a) ensure inter-regional connectivity, serve socio-economic development, national defense and security, environmental safety and international integration;

b) combine the development of railway infrastructure and development of vehicles, transport services and railway industry towards modernity and safety;

c) ensure the connection between railway vehicles and other modes of transport to create a transport system that is uniform, sustainable, safe and effective, and minimize harmful impacts the environment;

d) research into contents related to development of railway infrastructure upon formulation of planning for development of rail transport in special-grade, grade-I urban areas, major international airports, special-grade and grade-I seaports.

4. Formulation and approval of the planning for development of rail transport:

a) The Minister of Transport shall organize the formulation of the planning for development of national and urban railways that pass through 02 provinces and central-affiliated cities (hereinafter referred to as “provinces”) or more and submit it to the Prime Minister for approval; shall formulate and approve the detailed planning for national railway lines and stations in grade-III urban or above areas, major railway stations and international railway stations.

b) The Presidents of the People’s Committees of provinces shall organize the formulation of the urban and provincial planning including the contents related to development of urban and specialized railways and submit them to the Prime Minister for approval.

Article 8. International cooperation in railway transport

1. International cooperation in railway transport must ensure independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests; satisfy the need for international cooperation; comply with treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory.

2. Give priority to regional and international cooperation in rail transport business; railway infrastructure investment and business; development of railway industry; scientific research, technology transfer; provision of training for human resources.

3. Ministries and ministerial agencies shall take charge and cooperate with the Ministry of Transport in facilitating customs clearance at international railway stations.

Article 9. Prohibited acts in railway activities

1. Sabotaging railway works and railway vehicles.

2. Encroaching upon railway safety corridors and safety perimeters of railway works.

3. Opening passages crossing a railway without permission; illegally building flyovers, underpasses, culverts or other works built within the land area for rail transport; illegally carrying out drilling or digging operations within safety perimeters of railway works.

4. Tampering with works and railway signaling; covering or tampering with railway signals.

5. Obstructing the train operation; arbitrarily using signals or equipment to stop trains, unless a threat to railway safety is found.

6. Trespassing fences or barriers of level crossings when the block signal is given; trespassing fences that separate a railway from adjacent areas.

7. Discharging untreated sewage onto railways; placing obstacles and dumping hazardous substances or waste on railways; illegally placing flammable or explosive substances within safety perimeters of railway works and railway safety corridors.

8. Herding animals and opening up markets on railways and within safety perimeters of railway works and railway safety corridors.

9. Walking, standing, lying, sitting or performing other acts on roofs of coaches, locomotives, steps; hanging, standing, sitting on sides of coaches, locomotives, or connectors; opening train doors, poking the head, arm, leg, or other things out of the coach when the train is running, except for railway workers and law enforcement officers on duty.

10. Walking, standing, lying, sitting or performing other acts on railway lines, except for railway workers and law enforcement officers on duty.

11. Throwing earth, stones or other objects at or from the train.

12. Bringing or transporting prohibited goods or animal that carries contagious diseases to the station or to the train; illegally bringing or transporting wild animals, radioactive/flammable/explosive substances and dangerous goods to the station or the train; bringing or transporting corpses or bones to the station or to the train running on urban railways.

13. Making or using counterfeit tickets; selling tickets against the law.

14. Allowing any railway vehicle or equipment that fails to meet technical safety requirements to operate on railways; using cargo coaches to transport passengers; changing the structure, design or functions of vehicles without permission; assigning or allowing another person who is ineligible to operate a railway vehicle.

15. Assembling coaches that contain animals, stinky goods, flammable/explosive substances, hazardous substances, or other dangerous goods into a passenger train.

16. Operating trains beyond the speed limits.

17. Railway workers directly serving train operation are under influence of alcohol or other banned stimulants in the performance of their duties.