Harbour construction delays raise fears among boat owners

The tardy progress of the construction of a US$2.1 million harbour in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue has left hundreds of boat owners worried for the safety of their vessels during the fast approaching stormy season.

The Phu Hai breakwater project was started in 2008 by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and was expected to provide safe moorings to 500 boats. It was due for completion in May of this year.

However, the project was still not finished and was unlikely to be completed by the end of this year, said Phan Van Song, Phu Hai Commune’s Party Committee Secretary.

Song said that the project’s progress was lagging behind because the contractor, Vinashin Infrastructure Construction and Development Company, was short of both construction facilities and human resources.

“The work must be urgent, but there were only a few workers on the construction site,” he said.

According to industry expert Tran Cong Dang Tuong, only around 300 metres of the total 625-metre-long breakwater needed had been completed and other sections also remained unfinished.

Phan Thanh Hung, head of the province’s Sub-department of Dyke Management, Flood and Storm Control said that relevant parties had agreed to push back the deadline until June 2011.

The province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development did not want to change to another contractor as the process of tendering and the transfer of documents would take too long, Hung said.

Currently there are 4,000 boats and ships operating in the waters off the province and of the 32 harbours available, only 12 were correctly constructed with safe wharves. — VNS