CIRCULAR

PROVIDING FOR INSPECTION OF QUALITY, TECHNICAL SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY OF RAILWAY VEHICLES

Pursuant to the Law on Railway dated June 14, 2005; Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 51/2008/NĐ-CP dated April 22, 2008, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Transport; Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 109/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 22, 2006 providing instructions on the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Railway; the Ministry of Transport provides guidance on inspection of quality, technical safety, and environment safety of railway vehicles

Chapter 1

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Governing scope, regulated entities

1. This document provides for the inspection of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety for all kinds of railway vehicles imported, manufactured, assembled, modified, restored and railway vehicles during their operation on the following railway networks:

a) National railway;

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c) Specialized railway connected to national railway;

d) Specialized railway not connected to national railway going through residential areas and/or crossing roads.

2. Regulated entities:

This provision applies to organizations, individuals involved in the design, import, manufacturing, assembly, modification, restoration, and operation of railway vehicles used on the railway networks stipulated in Paragraph 1 of this Article.

Article 2. Interpretation of terms

In this Circular, the following terms are construed as follows:

1. Railway vehicles (hereinafter referred to as vehicles) include locomotives, carriages, motor coaches, specialized vehicles moving on railway;

2. Motor coach is a coach that has a motor so that it can move on the railway itself;

3. Specialized vehicles are rail cars, cranes, ballast tampers, track testing machines and other vehicles that can move on railway;

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5. Systems include brake system, transmission system, and electricity system:

6. Modification means changing the uses of a vehicle or its structure and technical characteristics to make it different from the original design for Diesel engines, traction motors, bogies, brake systems, couplers;

7. A product is either a vehicle, a component, or a system;

8. Design facilities are organizations that have legal status, business registration on designing railway vehicles in accordance with the current regulations;

9. Production establishments are enterprises eligible for manufacturing, assembling, modifying, restoring, and repairing vehicles under the current regulations.

Chapter 2

INSPECTION OF QUAILTY, TECHNICAL SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Article 3. The basis for inspection of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety

The basis for inspection of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety of railway vehicles (hereinafter referred to as inspection) include:

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2. Design documents or technical documents.

Article 4. Types of inspection

Types of inspection include:

1. Inspection of imported, manufactured, assembled products;

2. Inspection of modified, restored products;

3. Periodic inspection of vehicles;

4. Extraordinary inspection

Article 5. Design documents

Design document is prepared in 03 sets by a design facility or a production establishment that is eligible for design as prescribed and is submitted to registries for assessment. The design document is specified as follows:

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a) Technical drawings:

- Overall drawing of the vehicle;

- Installation drawing of components, systems;

- Drawing and technical specifications of components, systems manufactured in Vietnam;

- Technical specification of imported components, systems.

b) Explanation, calculation:

- Explanation of basic technical characteristics of the vehicle;

- Calculation of dynamics: smoothness during operating, anti-roll and anti-derailment safety;

- Calculation of traction (applied to locomotives, motor coaches, or other motor vehicles);

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- Test calculation of the braking.

2. With regard to manufactured, assembled components, the design document includes:

a) Overall drawing of the product;

b) Description of technical characteristics of the product

3. With regard to modified vehicles, the design document includes:

a) Overall drawing of the vehicle before and after the modification;

b) Technical documentation of components and systems used for conversion;

c) Explanation, calculation relating to modification.

Article 6. Design assessment

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2. The assessment of the design is considering and comparing the contents of the product design documents with current technical regulations and standards. The assessment of design is carried out within 15 days, from the day on which a satisfactory application is received. If the period of assessment is prolonged due to the requirements for supplementing the design document, the registry must send a written notification to the design facility or the production establishment.

3. After the assessment, design document will be sent to the design facility, production establishment, or vehicle owner and is retained at the registry.

Article 7. Inspection of manufactured and assembled products

1. The technical document used during inspection includes:

a) Design document of the product assessed by the registry;

b) Quality certificate (applicable to products of which quality certificate is required) or relevant technical documentation of components, systems used for manufacturing, assembling the product;

c) Inspection and acceptance document of product of the production establishment

2. Inspection contents:

a) Contents of vehicle inspection are specified in Annex 1 enclosed with this Circular;

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3. Inspection methods:

a) For vehicles: Vehicles are inspected one by one;

b) For components: inspecting a random product of the batches of products.

Article 8. Inspection of modified vehicles

1. The technical document used during inspection includes:

a) Design document of vehicle modification assessed by the registry;

b) Quality certificate (applicable to products of which quality certificate is required) or relevant technical documentation of components, systems used for modifying the product;

c) Inspection and acceptance document of vehicle provided by the production establishment

2. Inspection contents include consideration and evaluation of the quality of modified vehicles according to current technical regulations and standards and modification design document assessed by the registry.

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Article 9. Inspection of imported vehicles

1. The technical documents used during inspection includes:

a) Technical agreement of import contracts;

b) Documentation presenting technical characteristics of the vehicle;

c) Quality assurance Certificate of manufacturer or foreign competent quality inspection organization recognized by Vietnam Register.

2. Inspection contents:

Contents of inspection are specified in Annex 1 enclosed with this Circular

3. Inspection methods:

Vehicles are inspected one by one

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1. The time of inspection for vehicles operating on the national railway, urban railway:

Periodic inspection is conducted at the time when the vehicles are put into periodic repair. To be specific:

a) The time-limit of the first-time inspection for imported, manufactured, newly assembled vehicles: periodic inspection is conducted at the time when such vehicles are put into first-time repair at levels 2, 3 (for locomotives , specialized vehicles) and annual overhaul level (for carriages);

b) With regard to vehicles that are being used:

- Periodic inspection of locomotives, motor coaches is conducted at the time when such vehicles are put into repair at major overhaul level, level 2, and level 3;

- Periodic inspection of carriages is conducted at the time when such vehicles are put into repair at major overhaul level and annual overhaul level;

- Periodic inspection of specialized vehicles is conducted every 12 months.

2. Time of inspection for vehicles operating on specialized railway whether or not connected to national railway:

a) For imported, manufactured, assembled vehicles: first-time periodic inspection is conducted within 30 months from the time of inspection of the vehicles when they are imported, manufactured, assembled;

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3. The technical document used during inspection includes:

a) Technical summary of the vehicle;

b) Inspection and acceptance document of vehicle of the production establishment.

4. Inspection contents are specified in Annex 1 enclosed with this Circular

Article 11. Extraordinary inspection

Extraordinary inspection is conducted at the request of competent State agencies when the vehicles are involved in accidents or when there are complaints about product quality.

Article 12. Issuance and use of certificate of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety

1. Issuance of certificate of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety:

a) If products that are inspected as prescribed in Article 4 of this Regulation and design documents that are assessed satisfy the provisions of current technical regulations and standards, the registry shall issue the certificate of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety (hereinafter referred to as the certificate) using the form in Appendix 2 enclosed with this Circular;

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2. Use of certificate:

a) Certificate of manufactured, assembled components is issued to production establishments which are permitted to use, assemble such components on the vehicles;

b) Certificate issued to the vehicle is used in the procedures for registration and circulation of the vehicle;

c) Vehicle owners, vehicle operators are responsible for preserving and presenting the certificate at the request of competent State agencies. It is strictly prohibited to rectify, erase the certificate that has been issued.

3. Effect and revocation of certificate:

a) The certificate issued to the vehicle by the registry shall automatically expire if its components are severely damaged due to accidents and the vehicle is not safe for operation;

b) The registry shall revoke the certificate if the vehicle owner or operator does not comply with the current technical regulations and standards and technical process during maintenance, repair, and operation of the vehicle;

4. The register shall retain the registration dossier within 03 years, from the issuance of the certificate.

Chapter 3

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Article 13. Responsibilities of the Vietnam Register

1. Permit the registration of railway vehicles nationwide.

2. Comply with the regulations of current technical regulations and standards when inspecting quality and technical safety of products.

3. Formulate and issue guiding documents relating to registration within their competence

4. Inspect and issue the certificate objectively and lawfully. Head of the registry and the direct inspector shall be responsible for the inspection results.

5. Uniformly manage the issuance of certification of the inspected objects.

6. Consider, assess, and authorize laboratory and foreign register organizations.

7. Collect, use the fees and charges of registration according to current regulations.

8. Report annually to the Ministry of Transport the result of inspection of quality, technical safety, and environmental safety of railway vehicles.

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1. Responsibilities of import, manufacturing, design facilities:

a) Comply with the provisions on design documents and assessment of design documents as prescribed in Article 5 and Article 6 of this Circular;

b) Bear responsibility before the law for their product quality;

c) Comply with current processes, provisions, technical regulations and standards in import, design, manufacturing, assembling, repair, modification, restoration of products;

d) Formulate process of product quality inspection and invest in inspection equipment in accordance with relevant provisions. The inspection equipment must undergo period conformity inspection;

dd) Inspect quality each product and bear responsibility for finished product quality;

e) Bear responsibility for the origin and quality of imported products;

g) Be subject to the supervision of quality standards, technical safety, and environmental safety of the registry during production process;

h) Preserve technical document, quality certificate, certificates and present them at the request of competent State agencies;

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Repair, maintain in order to ensure technical safety standards and environmental safety of vehicle between two inspection periods of the registry.

Article 15. Effect

This Circular takes effect after 45 days from its signing; the Ministry of Transport’s Decision No. 58/2005 / dated November 07, 2005 promulgating "Regulations on inspection of quality, technical safety and environmental safety of railway vehicles" is annulled.

MINISTER




Ho Nghia Dung