THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To issue together with this Decision the Regulation on quality, technical safety and environmental protection inspection of railway vehicles.

Article 2.- This Decision takes effect as from January 1, 2006.

Article 3.- The director of the Office, the Chief Inspector, the directors of departments, the director of the Vietnam Register, the director of the Vietnam Railway Administration, and concerned organizations and individuals shall have to implement this Decision.

Minister of Transport
DAO DINH BINH

Article 1.- Scope and subjects of application

1. This Document provides for the quality, technical safety and environmental protection inspection of railway vehicles of all types, which are imported, manufactured, assembled, transformed or reconstructed and are exploited in the national railway network, urban railway networks and specialized railway networks linked to the international railway network.

2. This Regulation applies to organizations and individuals involved in the designing, import, manufacture, assembly, transformation, reconstruction or exploitation of railway vehicles.

Article 2.- Interpretation of terms

In this Regulation, the following terms shall be construed as follows:

1. Railway vehicles (hereinafter called vehicles for short) mean locomotives, carriages, self-propelled carriages and specialized vehicles moving on rail tracks.

2. Self-propelled carriages mean carriages fitted with engines for self-moving on rail tracks.

3. Specialized vehicles mean railcars, wagons, cranes, ballast tampers, track-inspection machines and other vehicles capable of moving on rail tracks.

4. Components mean diesel engines, main power generators, electric traction motors, bogies, brake valves, and draft gear-carrying couplers.

5. Systems mean brake systems, transmission systems and electric systems.

6. Transformation means the change of the utilities of a vehicle or change of the structures and other technical properties of diesel engines, electric traction motors, bogies, brake systems or draft gear-carrying couplers as compared with their original designs.

7. Products mean vehicles or components and systems.

8. Designing establishments mean organizations having the legal persons status and having registered for practice of designing railway vehicles in accordance with current regulations.

9. Manufacturing establishments mean enterprises manufacturing, assembling, transforming, reconstructing and/or repairing vehicles which fully meet the conditions according to current regulations.

Article 3.- Bases for quality, technical safety and environmental protection inspection

Bases for quality, technical safety and environmental protection inspection of railway vehicles (hereinafter called inspection for short) include:

1. Current technical standards, regulations, procedures and processes.

2. Design dossiers or technical dossiers.

Article 4.- Types of inspection

1. Inspection of imported, manufactured and assembled products;

2. Inspection of transformed or reconstructed products;

3. Periodical inspection of vehicles.

Article 5.- Design dossiers

A design dossier shall be made in 03 sets and submitted by manufacturing establishments or designing establishments to the register offices evaluation.

1. For manufactured or assembled vehicles, a design dossier set comprises:

a/ Technical drawings:

- A general drawing of the vehicle;

- A drawing on the assembly of components and systems;

- Drawings and technical parameters of home-made components and systems;

- A table of technical parameters of imported components and systems.

b/ Written explanations and calculations

- An explanation of the basic technical properties of the vehicle;

- Dynamic calculation: chatter-free operation and anti-overturn and anti-derailment safety;

- Traction calculation (for locomotives, self-propelled carriages and other self-propelled vehicles);

- Testing calculations of durability of underframes, coach bodies and frames of locomotives or self-propelled vehicles;

- Testing calculations of brakes.

2. For manufactured or assembled components, a design dossier set comprises:

a/ A general drawing of the product;

b/ Explanations of basic technical properties of the product.

3. For transformed vehicles, a design dossier set comprises:

a/ General drawings of the vehicle before and after transformation;

b/ Technical documents of components and systems used for the transformation;

c/ Explanations and calculations related to the transformation.

Article 6.- Design evaluation

1. The evaluation of design dossiers shall be carried out before products are manufactured or assembled for the first time, or are transformed.

2. Design evaluation means consideration and examination of the contents of products' design dossiers based on the current technical standards and regulations. The design evaluation must be completed within 15 days after receiving complete and valid dossiers. Where it is necessary to extend the evaluation duration for supplementing design dossiers, the register offices shall have to notify the designing establishments thereof in writing.

3. After evaluation, the design dossiers shall be transferred to the designing establishments and vehicle owners and archived at the register offices.

Article 7.- Inspection of manufactured and assembled products

1. Technical dossiers used in the inspection process comprise:

a/ Products' design dossiers already evaluated by the register offices;

b/ Quality certificates (for products for which quality certificates are required) or relevant technical documents of components and systems used for the manufacture or assembly of products;

c/ Product inspection and test dossiers of manufacturing establishments.

2. Inspection contents

a/ For vehicles: Inspection contents are specified in Appendix 1 to this Regulation.

3. For components: Inspection shall be based on current standards and comparison of technical parameters with the design dossiers already evaluated.

4. Inspection method

a/ For vehicles: Inspection of each product.

b/ For components: Inspection of 01 product of each lot.

Article 8.- Inspection of transformed vehicles

1. Technical dossiers used in the inspection process comprise:

a/ Design dossiers on the transformation of the vehicles already evaluated by the registries;

b/ Quality certificates (for products for which quality certificates are required) or relevant technical documents of components and/or systems used for the transformation of the vehicles;

c/ Vehicle inspection and test dossiers of manufacturing establishments;

2. Inspection shall cover consideration and evaluation of the quality of transformed vehicles according to current regulations and standards and transformation dossiers already evaluated by the register offices.

3. Inspection method: Inspection of each vehicle.

Article 9.- Inspection of imported vehicles

1. Technical dossiers used in the inspection process comprise:

a/ Technical agreement of the import contracts;

b/ Documents introducing technical properties of the vehicles;

c/ Valid ex-factory quality certificates of the manufacturers or foreign competent quality inspection organizations accredited by the Vietnam Register.

2. Inspection contents: Inspection contents are specified in Appendix 1 to this Regulation.

3. Inspection method: Inspection of each vehicle.

Article 10.- Periodical inspection of vehicles

1. Time of inspection

Periodical inspection shall be carried out at the time vehicles undergo periodical repair, specifically as follows:

a/ For locomotives and self-propelled carriages, it is the time for general overhaul, overhaul and grade-2 and -3 repair;

b/ For carriages, it is the time for overhaul and annual repair;

c/ For specialized vehicles, the inspection shall be carried out once every 12 months.

2. Technical dossiers used in the inspection process comprise:

a/ Technical records of the vehicles;

b/ Vehicle inspection and test dossiers of manufacturing establishments.

3. Inspection contents are specified in Appendix 1 to this Regulation.

Article 11.- Unexpected inspection

Unexpected inspection shall be carried out at the request of competent state agencies or upon complaints about product quality.

Article 12.- Grant and use of quality, technical safety and environmental protection certificates

1. Quality, technical safety and environmental protection certificates shall be granted as follows:

a/ Products which comply with current technical regulations and standards, after having been inspected under the provisions of Article 4 of this Regulation and their design dossiers evaluated, shall be granted by the register offices quality, technical safety and environmental protection certificates (hereinafter called certificates for short), made according to a set form;

b/ After the inspection is completed, certificates shall be granted within 01 day, for vehicles subject to periodical inspection, and within 03 days, for imported, manufactured, assembled and transformed vehicles.

2. The certificates shall be used as follows:

a/ Certificates of manufactured or assembled components granted to manufacturing establishments permitting establishments to assemble such components on vehicles.

b/ Certificates granted to vehicles shall be used for carrying out procedures for registration and circulation of such vehicles.

c/ Vehicle owners and exploiters shall have to preserve and produce certificates at the request of competent state agencies. It is strictly prohibited to modify or erase the granted certificates.

3. Validity of certificates and withdrawal of certificates:

a/ Certificates granted by registries to vehicles shall automatically become invalid once vehicles are involved in accidents.

b/ Register offices shall withdraw certificates if vehicle owners or exploiters fail to strictly comply with current technical standards, regulations, procedures and processes in the maintenance, repair and exploitation of vehicles.

4. Registries shall preserve registration dossiers for 03 years as from the date of granting certificates.

Article 13.- Responsibilities of registries

The Vietnam Register, the agency managing and organizing the registration of railway vehicles, shall have the responsibilities:

1. To strictly observe current technical procedures, processes, regulations and standards when carrying out product quality and technical safety inspection.

2. To formulate and promulgate documents guiding professional operations related to registration work according to its competence.

3. To inspect and grant certificates in an objective and lawful manner. Heads of register offices and inspectors shall have to bear responsibility for the inspection results.

4. To uniformly manage the issuance and grant of certificates to inspected objects.

5. To conduct consideration, evaluation, and authorization of foreign registers.

6. To collect and use registration charges and fees according to current regulations.

7. Annually, to report to the Ministry of Transport the results of inspection of quality, technical safety and environmental protection of railway vehicles.

8. To guide the implementation of this Regulation.

Article 14.- Responsibilities of designing establishments, manufacturing establishments, vehicle owners and exploiters

1. Responsibilities of designing establishments:

a/ To strictly comply with current technical procedures, regulations and standards.

b/ To comply with the provisions on design dossiers and evaluation of design dossiers in Article 5 and Article 6 of this Regulation.

c/ To bear responsibility before law for the quality of their designs.

2. Responsibilities of manufacturing establishments:

a/ To strictly comply with current technical procedures, processes, regulations and standards when importing, manufacturing, assembling, repairing, transforming and reconstructing products.

b/ To formulate procedures for product quality inspection and invest in inspection equipment suitable to their management; inspection equipment must be inspected on a periodical basis.

c/ To inspect the quality of each product and bear responsibility therefor.

d/ To bear responsibility for the origin and quality of imported products.

e/ To be subject to the quality, technical safety and environmental protection supervision by the registries during the manufacture process

f/ To preserve technical dossiers, quality certificates and other certificates and produce them at the request of competent state agencies.

3. Vehicle owners and exploiters shall have to conduct repair and maintenance of vehicles so as to ensure their technical safety and environmental protection standards during the interval between two inspections by the registries.

Minister of Transport
DAO DINH BINH

1.1. FOR LOCOMOTIVES, SELF-PROPELLED CARRIAGES AND SPECIAL-USE VEHICLES

Notes:

- x means inspection items

- x(*) means inspection items applicable to vehicles undergoing periodical inspection upon overhaul.

1.2. FOR CARRIAGES

Notes:

- x means inspection items.-