BMA rethink on Skytrain cost
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is set to back down from its plan to pay for 100 per cent of the cost of the Skytrain extension along Sukhumvit Road, an informed source revealed yesterday.
The planned route will stretch 5.2 kilometres from On Nut station to Sukhumvit Soi 107. "The change in the investment proportion is in response to a Cabinet resolution that approved the construction of five electric-train routes," the source who declined to be identified, explained. According to the resolution, the government sector must pay for construction works - while the private sector pays for the rolling stock (trains). "If the BMA invests in the construction works for the Sukhumvit extension route, it will spend less than Bt4 billion instead of Bt8.75 billion it initially planned to spend," the source said. The administration's Traffic and Transport Department has prepared a study on the change, as ordered by city Governor Apirak Kosayodhin. It will be presented soon to the committee overseeing the five electric routes. The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning chairs the committee. The source said it looked like the BMA would hire Italian-Thai Development Company to take charge of the construction and that it would ask the Bangkok Transit System (BTS) to arrange rolling stock. BTS operates the first phase of Skytrain system, which stretches over 23.5 kilometres.
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