Thông tư 81/2015/TT-BGTVT quản lý bảo trì công trình đường sắt

CIRCULAR

PRESCRIBING MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF RAIL ENGINEERING WORKS

Pursuant to the Law on Railway No. 35/2005/QH11 dated June 14, 2005;

Pursuant to the Law on Construction No. 50/2014/QH13 dated June 18, 2014;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 107/2012/ND-CP dated December 20, 2012 defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport;

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

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 14/2015/ND-CP dated February 13, 2015 specifying and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Railway;

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

Upon the request of the Director of Department of Transport Infrastructure and the Director of Vietnam Railway Authority,

The Minister of Transport hereby issues the Circular that prescribes management and maintenance of rail engineering works.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

1. This Circular prescribes railway infrastructure management; implementation of maintenance of national and dedicated railways.

2. Management and maintenance of rail engineering works shall conform to regulations of provincial-level People's Committees.

Article 2. Subjects of application

This Circular shall apply to organizations or individuals related to management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of national and dedicated rail engineering works.

Article 3. Definition

For the purposes of this Circular, terms used herein shall be construed as follows:

1. Rail engineering works refers to rail transport engineering works, including roads, bridges, culverts, tunnels, embankments, barrier walls, train terminals, drainage systems, communications, signaling and power supply systems, and other rail auxiliary facilities or equipment.

2. Railway infrastructure refers to rail engineering works, railway protection boundaries and rail transportation safety corridors.

3. Procedures for maintenance of rail engineering works refers to documents providing regulations on processes, requirements and instructions for maintenance of rail engineering works.

4. Maintenance of rail engineering works refers to a combination of activities that ensures and maintains the normal and safe operation rail engineering works in conformity with design requirements during the process of use and operation thereof.

5. Inspection of rail engineering works refers to evaluation or examination of rail engineering works via physical senses or dedicated equipment that help to detect any damage or any potential risks of damage to these works to take timely corrective actions.

6. Monitoring of rail engineering works refers to the time-specific observation, measurement and recording of any geometrical change, deformation, distortion, transition, and other technical parameters of works and the ambient environment.

7. Inspection of quality of rail engineering works refers to examination and assessment of quality or causes of damage, value, useful life and other technical parameters of parts or the whole of rail engineering works through monitoring, survey, testing, calculation and analysis activities.

8. Maintenance of rail engineering works refers to monitoring of, caring for and repair of minor defects of rail engineering works and built-in equipment which are carried out in a regular or periodic manner to sustain normal operational conditions and restrict any possible damage of rail engineering works.

9. Repair of rail engineering works refers to correction or mitigation of any defect or damage of rail engineering works that may be discovered during the process of operation in order to ensure normal and safe conditions of these works. Repair of rail engineering works shall include periodic and ad-hoc repair:

a) Periodic repair of rail engineering works is defined as the repair of any defect or replacement of damaged constituents or equipment of these works which are carried out in a periodic manner as prescribed by maintenance procedures or plans which have already been approved;

b) Ad-hoc repair of rail engineering works is defined as the repair of part or the whole of rail engineering works which may be damaged due to unexpected effects such as wind, storm, flood, earthquake, collision, fire and others, or of part or the whole of rail engineering works which may be degraded to the extent of adverse effect on safety for use, operation and exploitation of these works.

10. Rail engineering works maintenance service provider is defined as an organization or individual assigned or contracted to render one or more rail engineering works maintenance services.

Article 4. Requirements for management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Rail engineering works already brought into operation shall be managed and maintained in accordance with the Government's Decree No. 14/2015/ND-CP dated February 13, 2015 specifying and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Railway (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 14/2015/ND-CP), the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP dated May 12, 2015 on management of quality and maintenance of construction works (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP), and other relevant legislative documents and provisions laid down herein.

2. Maintenance of rail engineering works shall be subject to the annual maintenance plan and procedures for maintenance of rail engineering works which have been approved by competent authorities; shall be organized and carried out as prescribed by Chapter II hereof.

3. Maintenance of rail engineering works must ensure safety for humans, property and these works themselves; assure safe and through traffic; enhance fire and explosion prevention and control.

Article 5. Activities of management of railway infrastructure

1. Managing property of the railway infrastructure system.

2. Managing financial sources for management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works.

3. Managing formulation, issuance, release and implementation of technical standards and regulations; norms, unit prices, unit costs and prices of public rail utilities.

4. Managing establishment, assessment, approval and authorization of the plan for, deciding on approaches to implementing, organizing management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works.

5. Managing establishment, assessment and approval of plans, budget and organizing prevention, control and mitigation of consequences of floods, storms, natural calamities and railway transport accidents.

6. Managing and protecting the railway infrastructure system.

7. Keeping dossiers on potential rail accident black spots and small radius curves that reduce the train throughput or route capacity; the number of rail transport accidents and determination of primary causes of each accident.

8. Updating the dossiers on management of the railway infrastructure to the database for monitoring and managerial purposes. Components and contents of dossiers shall be subject to regulations laid down in Appendix 1 hereof.

9. Examining, inspecting, supervising, and handling complaints or accusations, imposing proper penalties for any violation of laws on management of the railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works as prescribed by regulations in force.

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

Article 6. Activities of maintenance of rail engineering works

Maintenance of rail engineering works shall comprise one, certain or all of the following activities, such as examination, monitoring and assurance of quality, maintenance and repair of rail engineering works, but excluding those that may change functions or scale of these works.

Article 7. Responsibilities of persons and entities engaged in management of railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Regulatory bodies shall be responsible for examining, inspecting, supervising, handling complaints or accusations, imposing proper penalties for any violation of laws on management of the railway infrastructure and maintenance of rail engineering works.

2. Designated railway management and operation enterprises shall take responsibility for managing the railway infrastructure and maintaining national-level state-invested rail engineering works; shall be liable for any defect or degradation of rail engineering works which is resulted from failure to carry out legally-required maintenance of these works.

3. Entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure with competent regulatory bodies shall be responsible for managing the railway infrastructure and maintaining rail engineering works as agreed upon in that contract; shall be liable for any defect or degradation of these works which is resulted from failure to carry out legally-required maintenance of these works.

4. With respect to dedicated railways or other investors’ railways, owners or assignees shall be responsible for managing the railway infrastructure and maintaining rail engineering works developed on their own expenses; shall be liable for any defect or degradation of rail engineering works which is resulted from failure to carry out legally-required maintenance of these works.

Chapter II

ORGANIZATION OF MAINTENANCE OF RAIL ENGINEERING WORKS

Article 8. Formulation, approval and modification of the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Formulation of the plan for maintenance of national-level state-invested rail engineering works:

a) Depending on technical conditions of rail engineering works, transportation demands of each railway currently in operation, maintenance procedures, economic – technical norms, state regulations in force, railway management and operation enterprises shall, on an annual basis, review, integrate and draw up plans for maintenance of rail engineering works under their management, including the following duties such as maintenance, periodic repair, inspection, monitoring, ad-hoc repair and other activities (if any) by using the form given in the Appendix 2 hereof;

b) The plan for maintenance of rail engineering works shall be made into 02 sets, enclosing the summary of technical conditions of rain engineering works (using the form given in Appendix 3 hereof), one of which shall be sent to the Ministry of Transport and the rest of which shall be sent to the Vietnam Railway Authority before the 15^th day of June every year; concurrently, railway management and operation enterprises shall establish the budgetary plan for economic finances sent to the Ministry of Transport;

c) The annual plan for maintenance of rail engineering works shall include the plan for maintenance and repair of each rail track (track segment) and other affairs (if any). The plan for maintenance of rail engineering works must provide the following information in full, such as name of each rail engineering work and components thereof; unit, volume and estimated budget for implementation of that plan; implementation time; implementation approaches and priority degree.

2. Approval of the plan for maintenance of national-level state-invested rail engineering works:

a) Within a period of 10 working days of receipt of all required documents, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall be responsible for assessing the plan and preparing an assessment report for submission to the Ministry of Transport;

b) Based on the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works submitted by railway management and operation enterprises and the assessment report of the Vietnam Railway Authority, the Ministry of Transport shall review the plan, prepare the general plan and keep a record of estimated costs of maintenance of rail engineering works into the annual state budgetary plan of the Ministry of Transport for submission to the Ministry of Finance ahead of the 20^th July every year;

c) After receipt of the notification of the annual budgetary plan from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport shall authorize railway management and operation enterprises to implement that plan. Railway management and operation enterprises shall review and modify the plan and the estimate of budget for maintenance of rail engineering works consistent with allocated funds; prepare dossiers for submission to relevant bodies for assessment and inspection purposes in accordance with subparagraph b paragraph 1 of this Article. The periodic repair of railway engineering works and equipment 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 annually assess and approve the plan and the budget estimate for maintenance of rail engineering works after receipt of all required documents on the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works, the assessment report and opinions from relevant regulatory agencies or bodies (if any).

3. The plan for maintenance of national-level state-invested rail projects shall be modified or supplemented during the process of implementation thereof, depending on practical conditions. The Ministry of Transport shall decide whether modification of the maintenance plan is approved by December 1 every year.

4. Entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall draw up, approve and modify the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works that they have been received under assignment.

5. Formulation, approval and modification of the plan for maintenance of dedicated rail projects or other investors’ rail projects shall be subject to regulations of the owners or assignees.

Article 9. Implementation of the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works

1. With respect to national-level state-invested rails, based on the approved annual plan for maintenance of railway projects, railway management and operation enterprises shall organize implementation of this plan in accordance with regulations in force.

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

a) As for care of rail engineering works and equipment, based on the approved maintenance plan, railway management and operation enterprises shall draw up the public utilities pricing plan and submit it to the Ministry of Transport that issues its approval decision or authorizes the Vietnam Railway Authority to make its approval decision;

b) As for repair of rail engineering works or equipment of which total cost is less than VND 500 million, railway management and operation enterprises shall be accorded the discretionary power in accordance with subparagraph a paragraph 4 Article 39 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP;

c) As for repair of rail engineering works or equipment of which the minimum cost is VND 500 million, railway management and operation enterprises shall prepare the feasibility study report or project which is submitted to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its assessment and approval as prescribed by laws on investment and construction;

d) As for ad-hoc repair of the whole or part of rail engineering works which is damaged owing to rainstorm, flood, earthquake, collision, conflagration, explosion or other natural disaster which are not specified in the approved maintenance plan, the Ministry of Transport shall authorize the Vietnam Railway Authority to give the approval decision and then send a review report to the Ministry of Transport.

3. Based on the decision to approve items to be maintained under paragraph 2 of this Article, railway management and operation enterprises shall carry on maintenance.

4. The Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Railway Authority shall inspect and supervise implementation of the plan for maintenance of national-level state-invested railway in accordance with regulations in force.

5. Entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall implement the plan for maintenance of the received works or equipment at their discretion.

6. As for dedicated railways or other investors’ railways, owners or their authorized persons shall be required to implement the plan for maintenance of their rail engineering works.

Article 10. Examination, care, repair and assessment of safety for rail engineering works

1. Rail engineering works maintenance service provider shall examine, maintain and repair rail engineering works under the maintenance contract and the approved maintenance procedures.

2. Examination, maintenance and repair of rail engineering works shall be subject to paragraph 2, 3 and paragraph 4 Article 40 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP and provisions hereof.

3. Assessment of safety of rail engineering works carried out during the process of use and operation thereof, including load bearing and operational safety, shall be subject to paragraph 1, 2 and 3 Article 43 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP.

4. Control and assurance of quality of rail engineering works shall be subject to paragraph 5 Article 40 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP. Formulation and submission of the outline and estimate of costs of assessment of rail engineering works shall be subject to the following regulations:

a) With respect to national-level state-invested railways, based on the approved maintenance plan, railway management and operation enterprises shall formulate the outline and estimate of costs of maintenance; submit them to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its assessment and approval;

b) Entities and persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall prepare the maintenance outline for submission to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its assessment and approval; shall be accorded the discretionary power to approve the estimate of maintenance costs and carry out assessment activities;

c) As for dedicated railways and other investors’ railways, formulation and submission of the outline and estimate of costs of assessment thereof shall be subject to provisions of the Law on Construction and other documents providing guidance on implementation of this Law.

Article 11. Monitoring of rail engineering works for maintenance purposes

1. Monitoring of rail engineering works for maintenance purposes shall be required with respect to:

a) Special-class or class-1 bridges, tunnels or stations;

b) Rail engineering works which may be collapsed due to subsidence, tilt, cracking and other abnormalities;

c) Other rail engineering works upon the request of competent regulatory bodies, owners, authorized persons or of users or operators thereof.

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

3. Monitoring of rail engineering works shall provide the following information, such as monitoring positions, parameters (deformation, tilt, subsidence, cracking or sag, etc.), monitoring duration, number of measurement cycles and other necessary information. The monitoring plan must include the measurement method, measurement equipment, zoning plan and configuration of markers; organization of monitoring activities; approaches to processing measurement data and other necessary information.

4. Process for monitoring national-level state-invested rail engineering works:

a) Railway management and operation enterprises shall, based on the approved maintenance plan, undertake formulation of the outline and estimate of costs of monitoring activities; submit them to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its assessment and approval; take charge of monitoring activities and prepare a review 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; propose and give warnings to owners if measurement data exceeds the allowable limit or any abnormality occurs to take timely actions; proceed to assess safety for rail engineering works in accordance with regulations in force;

b) Entities and persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall prepare the monitoring outline for submission to the Vietnam Railway Authority for its assessment and approval; shall be accorded the discretionary power to approve the estimate of monitoring costs, carry out maintenance activities and make a report as prescribed by subparagraph a hereof.

5. As for dedicated railways and other investors’ railways, this monitoring work shall be subject to provisions of the Law on Construction and other documents providing guidance on this Law.

6. Monitoring service providers must have competence in carrying out monitoring activities and acquire a lot of experience in handling any failure or defect of rail engineering works in accordance with laws.

Article 12. Management of quality of maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Railway management and operation enterprises, or entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure, owners or their authorized persons of dedicated railways and other investors’ railways, and maintenance service providers and other organizations or individuals engaged in maintenance activities shall be responsible for managing quality of rail engineering works as per the Government's Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP and other relevant regulations in force.

2. Railway maintenance documentation shall be made, subject to paragraph 9 Article 41 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP and shall be put into the rail management file.

3. The duration of warranty of repair of rail engineering works shall be subject to paragraph 4 Article 41 of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP.

Article 13. Rules for dealing with rail engineering works of which useful life could be extended upon expiry

1. Expired rail engineering 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 rail engineering works.

2. At least one year preceding the expiry date, if they wish to continue to operate rail engineering works, railway management and operation enterprises, or entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure, owners or their authorized persons of dedicated railways and other investors’ railways must perform the following activities:

a) Carrying out examination, inspection and assessment of current quality of each rail engineering work;

b) Repairing any damage or defects in order to maintain useful effects and safety during operation of rail engineering works; considering and deciding whether ongoing use of a rail engineering work is possible, except those works referred to in Appendix Ii of the Government's Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP;

c) Reporting to the Ministry of Transport and Vietnam Railway Authority on results of examination, inspection and assessment of quality of rail engineering works, results of repair of rail engineering works (if any). The Vietnam Railway Authority shall consider issuing or recommend the Ministry of Transport to issue its decision on rail engineering works referred to in Appendix II of the Government’s Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP.

Article 14. Reporting regime for maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Reporting regime:

a) Railway management and operation enterprises, entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall prepare periodic or ad-hoc review reports on implementation of the plan for maintenance of national-level state-invested rail engineering works for submission to the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Railway Authority on a biannual manner within the period from ahead of July 15 every year to ahead of January 15 of the succeeding year;

a) Owners or persons authorized to manage or maintain dedicated rail engineering works or other investors' railways shall follow the regime for submitting periodic or ad-hoc reporting of results of implementation of the maintenance plan to the Vietnam Railway Authority on an annual basis ahead of January 15 of the succeeding year;

c) The Vietnam Railway Authority shall implement the regime for submitting a report on results of implementation of the plan for maintenance of railways (including national-level state-invested railways, dedicated railways and other investors’ railways) to the Ministry of Transport on an annual basis ahead of January 25 of the succeeding year.

2. Contents of the report must fully provide the following information: name of specific rail engineering works, name of items to be maintained; implementation volume and fund; completion date; any modification or supplementation of the approved plan; assessment of implementation results (compared with the approved plan); any request or proposal arising during the process of maintenance of rail engineering works (using the sample report given in the Appendix 4 hereof).

Article 15. Rules for dealing with rail engineering works that pose a risk of danger to safety during operation thereof

1. When discovering any rail engineering work that pose a risk of danger to safety during its operation process, railway management and operation enterprises, or entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure, owners or their authorized persons of dedicated railways and other investors’ railways shall be responsible for reporting on such emergency case to the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Railway Authority; and concurrently complying with provisions laid down in paragraph 1 Article 44 of the Government's Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP.

2. When discovering or receiving any report on any rail engineering works posing danger to safety for its operation, the Vietnam Railway Authority shall carry out verification and request the Ministry of Transport to issue its decision to take proper action.

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

Article 16. Application of technical standards, regulations and economic-technical norms to maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Care of rail engineering works:

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

b) With respect to maintenance project items without economic - technical norms, applying respective norms of industries or local jurisdictions which have already been issued by competent authorities.

2. Periodic or ad-hoc repair of rail engineering works shall conform to provisions of laws on investment and construction and other relevant regulations.

Chapter III

COST OF MAINTENANCE OF RAIL ENGINEERING WORKS

Article 17. Fund and budget for maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Fund and budget for maintenance of rail engineering works shall be derived from the following financing sources:

a) State budget;

b) Other legitimate revenues.

2. Entities or persons that are assignees in a fixed-term contract for assignment of the rights of operation and business of the national-level state-invested railway infrastructure shall be responsible for making fund available for maintenance of their assigned rail engineering works under the assignment contract with a competent regulatory body.

3. Fund and budget for maintenance of dedicated rail projects or other investors' rail projects shall be arranged under regulations imposed by owners or their authorized persons.

4. Management and utilization of the fund or budget for maintenance of rail engineering works shall conform to legislation in force.

Article 18. Cost of maintenance of rail engineering works

1. Specific costs incurred from maintenance activities shall include:

a) Cost of formulation and assessment of maintenance procedures and economic-technical norms for maintenance of rail engineering works;

b) Cost of formulation of the plan for maintenance of rail engineering works (including costs incurred from survey, estimation, assessment and review of maintenance costs);

c) Cost of regular, periodic and ad-hoc inspection of rail engineering works;

d) Cost of monitoring of rail engineering works that need to be monitored;

dd) Cost of care of rail engineering works;

e) Cost of inspection of quality of rail engineering works;

g) Cost of periodic and ad-hoc repair of rail engineering works;

h) Cost of formulation and management of documentation on maintenance of rail engineering works and update of the database of railway infrastructure.

2. Determination of cost of management and maintenance of rail engineering works shall be subject to guidelines given by the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance and other legislative regulations.

Chapter IV

IMPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS

Article 19. Entry into force

This Circular shall enter into force from February 1, 2016 and replace the Circular No. 20/2013/TT-BGTVT dated August 16, 2013 of the Minister of Transport that prescribes management and maintenance of rail engineering works.

Article 20. Implementation

1. The Chief of the Office, the Ministry’s Chief Inspector, department Directors, Director of the Vietnam Railway Authority, General Director of the Vietnam Rail Incorporation, Heads of regulatory bodies, entities, and persons concerned, shall be responsible for implementing this Circular.

2. In the course of implementation of this Circular, if there is any difficulty that may arise, organizations and persons should send timely written feedbacks to the Ministry of Transport for its review and decision to apply appropriate actions./.