Vietnamese company implements digitalization in the operations and maintenance of Metro Line 1

By thanhnien.vn - 06/07/2024

Portcoast, a Vietnamese consulting firm specializing in port design, marine engineering, and digital transformation, will undertake the digitization of management, operation, and maintenance of Ho Chi Minh City's Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien Line).

This is Ho Chi Minh City's first urban infrastructure project to implement a digitization model on par with international standards.

This digitization will be carried out immediately following the comprehensive cooperation agreement signing ceremony between the HCMC Urban Railway Company Limited No. 1 and Portcoast Consultant Corporation, held on July 5, 2024. 

At the signing ceremony, Mr. Le Minh Triet, General Director of HCMC Urban Railway Company Limited No. 1, stated that the company is currently managing and operating Metro Line 1 and that both parties will cooperate in developing a management system by applying BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System) in the operation, exploitation, and maintenance of the metro line’s infrastructure and equipment. These digital models will help optimize operations, exploitation, and especially maintenance, essentially managing the "health" of the infrastructure.

"The company has issued a plan to build a BIM model for Metro Line 1 in specific phases and scopes of work. After this signing ceremony, both parties will develop a detailed plan to implement the work. Currently, the company has built 3D models of several elevated stations, and Portcoast will assist us in completing these stations and adding the remaining ones, along with building a model of the project's over 7 km viaduct. Next is the process of 'attaching' information and attributes to these models," Mr. Triet added.

The information and attributes Mr. Triet mentioned include detailed data from a very modern monitoring system to manage the "health" of the infrastructure, including sensors installed at various positions on the metro line and the train cars, to monitor the operation of the urban railway, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality, etc., in the tunnel. All monitoring data will be automatically transmitted to the operation management center for timely adjustments as needed.

Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, General Director of Portcoast, emphasized that applying digital models in operation, exploitation, and maintenance also aids in managing and predicting all possible risks by simulating and proposing scenarios to handle those risks, as the BIM model essentially manages the entire project lifecycle. Besides BIM, there is also integration on the GIS platform to later combine Metro Line 1 with other metro lines and HCMC's urban planning, including the city's underground space planning, moving towards building a truly smart city. "Portcoast has modern equipment on par with the world to implement this digitization model," Mr. Tuan noted.