Meanwhile, the Purple Line from Bang Yai to Bang Sue is still to be an electric route.

Pranot Suriya, deputy director-general of the office, said approval would be sought from the Cabinet to open the bidding for contractors to do the civil engineering work on the Red Line's 14.7-kilometre Taling Chan-Bang Sue section.

"It's expected that the State Railway of Thailand [SRT] will be open for bids in June," he said, adding that the Red Line would also be elevated.

"The SRT will initially arrange for trains using diesel as fuel to run on the completed track. When the time is right the government will change the diesel-fuelled system to an electric system."

He said at this stage, if an electric system is adopted for the Red Line it would not be worth the investment. Such an operation would be costly.

The government and the SRT therefore opted for a diesel system for the first stage of the Red Line and the state will procure the rail carriages and operate the route. The private sector will be involved only in the construction of the line.

Pranot said the Red Line's Rangsit-Bang Sue section will also be constructed as a diesel system. Designs are now being considered.

For the Purple Line's Bang Yai-Bang Sue section, he said civil engineering works and the concession for the route operation for an electric system would be open for bidding. However, both contracts, which are under the Public/Private Joint Venture Act, might take time.

Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um and Deputy Finance Minister Sommai Phasee previously had a clear time frame for proposing an electric mass-transit rail system to the Cabinet.

Under that plan, the Red Line's Taling Chan-Bang Sue section was scheduled to go to the Cabinet on May 22, while the Purple Line was expected to be proposed by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority in mid-July and open for bidding at the end of August.

The Blue Line is expected to be proposed at the same time as the Purple Line, while the Green Line linking Mor Chit to Saphan Mai, after being approved by the Council of

the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, will be proposed to the Cabinet in June.

The Red Line's Taling

Chan-Bang Sue section, which will be the first line constructed, will be supported by the

government for civil engineering works with a Bt13-billion investment. Of this, about Bt2 billion will be from the government budget and the rest will be domestic bank loans.

The other electric-rail route projects will be financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, to the tune of Bt92 billion.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation