BMTA managing director Pinetr Puapatanakul said the agency would need to seek additional loans to finance its operation. After the Finance Ministry takes over its debts, it will look for other sources of finance.

It is seeking to modify the engines of its public buses, currently fuelled by diesel, to enable them to use natural gas for vehicles (NGV).

It is assessing how many of its 3,600 buses can be modified and how many new vehicles it will have to buy. Then it will be able to summarise the required investment and propose a plan to its board.

If things go as planned, the proposal should be completed by August. Then the plan would be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

The new budget should be drawn from October, the start of fiscal 2008.

"We have not finalised the amount of the required loans, especially regarding engines. The cost of an engine is estimated at Bt1.5 million. The cost of a new bus is about Bt6 million. In spite of the cost, the plan should help ease the debt burden of the BMTA in the long term, because fuel costs will be cut from Bt24 per litre to Bt8 [by using NGV]," said Pinetr.

The Thaksin Shinawatra government planned to replace 2,000 public buses with new ones with NGV-applicable engines. The project would have cost Bt12 billion.

Although the present government abolished the plan, the Finance Ministry still set aside this amount of budget for the BMTA.

Pinetr said the drastic drop in fuel costs should enable the BMTA to service its new debt.

Last month, the Cabinet approved a plan for the BMTA to borrow Bt11.4 billion, of which Bt10 billion would repay the trading debt to PTT for fuel and Bt1.4 billion would finance maintenance.

The agency now faces monthly losses of about Bt500 million. Without immediate action, its debts will rise further.

WATCHARAPONG THONGRUNG

The Nation