On July 11, Vietnam Railway Authority (VNRA) and the Aus4Transport (A4T) Program held a conference to announce the implementation result of Version 1.0 of Project: Building Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure (VNRA-MIS system).
The conference was held online at 8 video conference points: Hanoi, Lao Cai, Dong Dang, Bac Giang, Vinh, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Sai Gon. Participants were representatives of the Australian Embassy in Vietnam; working group, experts, supervisor, consulting unit: Aus4Transport Program, Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), Railway JSCs, Railway Signal and Information JSC. Regarding agencies under the Ministry of Transport, there are the Information Technology Center; Departments: Investment Planning, Finance, Transport Infrastructure; VNRA.
Project: Building Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure. (VNRA-MIS system) is under Component B of Aus4Transport Program. This is a 5-year transport infrastructure development program (2018-2022) managed by contractor DT Global on behalf of the Australian Government. The program granted $30 AUD million to increase investment in Vietnam’s transport infrastructure, enabling to enhance national transport network that supports comprehensive economic growth and poverty alleviation of the country.
Particularly, the VNRA-MIS project was started from June 2022; The project completion schedule is June 2024. The project has a total cost of over 1.1 million AUD. The project is undertaken by Vietnam – Denmark VidaGIS Co., Ltd. to implement the construction and development of system software.
Acting Director General of VNRA Tran Thien Canh gave opening speech at the Conference
Giving opening speech at the Conference, Acting Director General of VNRA Tran Thien Canh expressed his sincere thanks to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), PMC/A4T and the Advisory Departments and IT Center, Ministry of Transport has interested and supported the implementation of the project “Building Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure”.
Mr. Tran Thien Canh said: “The National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with orientation to 2030 approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 2269/QD-TTg dated December 8, 2020, the Program The Ministry of Transport’s digital transformation to 2025, with a vision to 2030, had defined the vision “Transportation is a pioneer industry in innovation, comprehensive digital transformation to realize the strategic goals of the industry, applying digital technology and extensively using digital data in all management activities to develop modern transport infrastructure, protect the environment and ensure traffic safety for the people””.
The approved e-Government architecture framework and digital transformation plan of the Ministry of Transport for the 2021-2025 period has oriented towards the railway sector that it is necessary to build databases on: Infrastructure, vehicles, vehicle drivers, transportation and railway transportation safety. Information technology (IT) application in management is an urgent requirement. It requires officials and staff of the whole railway industry in general and the infrastructure management sector in particular to make more efforts, change old ways of thinking and doing, and acquire new knowledge to be able to use IT system in the most skillful and effective manner.
“Therefore, it can be said that the goal of the Project of Building VNRA-MIS System is completely consistent with the political mission of the whole industry. This project will bring a breakthrough in how railway infrastructure is managed. Overall, VNRA-MIS will support the transformation to digital system to help state agencies in railway field and Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR), related units streamline their operations, improve efficiency, provide better management and monitoring of national railway infrastructure”, emphasized by Acting Director General of VNRA Tran Thien Canh.
After more than 1 (one) year of implementation, with the efforts of VidaGIS Company, the effective support of PMC experts, the close coordination among VNRA, VNR and related units in railway industry, to date the project has completed Version 1.0, basically according to the schedule and quality requirements, creating a good basis for the next steps of implementation for digitization in infrastructure management of national railway lines, striving to complete all contents of the project by June 2024.
Acting Director General of VNR Tran Thien Canh hopes that agencies/units will continue to support and help so that the Project can be completed and put into effective operation soon.
Delegates discussed about the project
Mr. Miles Rendell, Deputy Team Leader, Aus4Transport Program, said: “The quality and efficiency of data collection for railway development master planning as well as identification of investment options have not been suitable yet. Therefore, this information system will be an effective management tool for all railway infrastructure activities, including asset management, operation, maintenance, long-term priorities, construction works, etc. In addition, it will support to solve difficulties and challenges by improving project planning, which involves finance, investment in equipment and materials…”.
At the conference, the delegates heard the representative of the software development unit report the results of the implementation of version 1.0 of the VNRA-MIS system. Accordingly, the main goal of the System is to design railway infrastructure database structure, space and attributes; Updated from company level, approved by each level, aggregated, and centrally managed by VNRA; Monitoring the changes in railway infrastructure assets; Support management, planning O&M activities, extracting – filtering – looking up – presenting data; Make reports according to regulations, synthesize reports according to levels, dynamic reports; Sharing & exchanging data within the Ministry of Transport, VNR Corporation and its affiliates… At the same time, representatives of agencies, Railway JSCs, Railway Signal and Information JSC evaluated that the software is relatively complete, it is proposed to be put into use soon, in order to promote efficiency in the management of railway infrastructure in the coming time.
Representatives of agencies and units attended the Conference
According to the plan, the handover of infrastructure, documents and source code to VNR occurs in this July. PMC will support the commissioning process of VNRA-MIS system for 1 year. The software training program for officials and staff in charge of 20 railway units is expected to be held continuously from September 2023 in the Northern (Hanoi), Central (Da Nang), the Southern (HCMC) regions. Monitoring and evaluation of the expansion phase will take place in May 2024.
In December 2021, the Ministry of Transport issued a decision approving the project “Building Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure (VNRA-MIS)” under Component B of the Aus4Transport Program.
The goal of the project is to build a modern railway infrastructure management information system, including modules, databases, operation update mechanism,… supporting State management of railway infrastructure planning, investment plan, management and maintenance.
With the operation of the system, it is necessary to collect and standardize data on the list of assets, the current state of the national railway infrastructure with a full range of information fields serving the management of railway infrastructure including bridges, roads, tunnels, information and signal, railway crossings…; planning, list of investment and development projects, infrastructure management and maintenance plan.
Provide input data to support planning construction, development and management; supporting the construction and management of the railway development investment project portfolio to mobilize investment resources.
The VNRA-MIS system is presented in the form of a website that directly interacts, integrated and communicated with other systems according to the e-Government architecture framework of the Ministry of Transport.
