Chương I Thông tư 81/2015/TT-BGTVT: Quy định chung

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.