CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Ministry to consult firms
The Finance Ministry said it would consult with the contractors who won the recent bidding for a government office complex about whether they would like to keep the old prices as the contract signing may be delayed due to political uncertainty, said Treasury Department director-general Wisudhi Srisuphan.
Wisudhi said that next week, he would meet with Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction Plc and Italian-Thai Development Plc and officially discuss their plans for the Bt13.24-billion construction project, for which they won the bidding in February. "We want to know if the two companies will confirm their bidding prices or whether the contract signing should be delayed from the original planned date of May 31," he said. Wisudhi said their official replies were needed for the department to consider development of the complex. Sino-Thai won a contract worth Bt6.36 billion and Italian-Thai one for Bt6.88 billion for the construction of a government complex on Chaeng Wattana Road. Wisudhi said political uncertainty had already delayed the project. A new government has yet to be formed after the controversial April 2 general election, while the outgoing Cabinet has yet to approve the project. He said the two companies earlier told him unofficially that they were willing to continue with the project and confirm their bidding prices. They did not want the department to hold a new round of bidding. In the past few days, caretaker Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya said he would seek Cabinet approval for the project next week. He said he wanted to speed up the project to offset delays in other government mega-projects. The complex will cover 950,000 square metres. The Treasury Department expects to lease 490,000 square metres to 29 government agencies. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008. About 25,000 state officials will work in the complex, with a similar number employed on daily contracts. Late last year, CAT Telecom Plc won a deal from state-run Dhanarak Asset Development Co to provide advanced telecom services to the new complex for 15 years. The state telecom expects total revenues of Bt1.5 billion, or Bt100 million per year, from the deal. A dedicated network costing more than Bt600 million will provide the centre with low-cost voice-data-multimedia services, including fixed and wireless broadband Internet and video-conferencing. The highlight will be a low-rate Internet protocol for calling domestic and foreign numbers. Wichit Chaitrong The Nation
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