Rail bid plans irk Nesac
The National Economic and Social Advisory Council (Nesac) yesterday expressed concern that bidding for the Transport Ministry's three electric train routes in Bangkok might not be transparent and lack financial controls if they were turnkey projects.
Under turnkey conditions, bidders will provide all the construction, design and funds for the projects. A source on the committee monitoring the projects said that if turnkey conditions were drafted in the terms of reference, the investment projection might be lack sufficient controls. The source said bidding for Bangkok's southern ring road project had turnkey conditions. This meant the project could not be budgeted as the government planned, causing finance problems and lower returns on investment. The source said any stipulation in the train projects that contractors must be acquired within 60 days would be too short a time-scale and cause unfair competition. Terms of reference that allowed contractors to adjust routes could have adverse environmental effects because the new route would not have been the subject of a study, the source added. Meanwhile, a source at the Energy Planning and Policy Office said efforts to push up bidding for the train projects were more likely aimed at gaining votes than actually making the projects happen, as caretaker politicians should not have a mandate to sign legal contracts. Watcharapong Thongrung The Nation
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