Firm to sue Chinese contractor for abandoning power project
Play
A Vietnamese power company said yesterday that it would sue Chinese contractors for stopping construction on a multimillion-dollar hydropower project.
HydroChina Huadong Engineering Corporation and China Railway 18th Bureau Group Co Ltd won a contract to build two tunnels on the US$270-million hydropower plant.
The project, commissioned by Vietnam’s Vinh Son-Song Hinh HydropowerJSC (VSH), kicked off in 2009 and was scheduled to finish by the end of this year, with aim of delivering over 1 million kWh of energy a year.
The Chinese bid, at $77 million, was half the price of other offers for the same contract, VSH said.
The contractors had failed to keep to the agreed schedule of work, VSH said, adding that work stopped a month ago. According to VSH, the Chinese firms said they had failed to recruit local workers for the construction site due to difficulty in obtaining the necessary permits.
VSH and local police rejected this explanation.
“Our lawyers are preparing a lawsuit against the Chinese contractors for their violation of the construction terms,” a VSH official said.
“The Chinese contractors have asked for $38 million of additional costs that are not included in the contract,” VSH general director Vo Thanh Trung said.
Chinese contractors are involved in about 90 per cent of current energy projects in Vietnam.
