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Published on December 14, 2007

The shortage of bidders is blamed on the requirement that contractors take responsibility of evacuating communities along the construction area.

State Railway of Thailand (SRT) deputy governor Nakhon Jantasorn said only two of the seven companies that had expressed interest in bidding on the project actually submitted bids. The two are Unique-Chun Wo, a joint venture between Unique Engineering and Con-struction and Chun Wo Con-struction and Engineering; and STCC, a joint venture between Sintec Construction, Tipakorn and China State Construction Engineering (Thailand).

Nakhon said despite the low turnout, the SRT still considers the number satisfactory. He thought the other companies were not ready to participate in the project, especially since the government required them to take care of expropriation of land and evacuation of communities from the construction area.

The five companies that decided not to join the bids included Italian Thai Develop-ment, Ch Kanchang and the Sino-Thai Group.

Now that the bids have been submitted, the SRT will take about a week to consider the primary qualifications of the bidders. Then the SRT will consider the technical aspects.

The selection should be made next month, Nakhon said.

The Red Line measures 15 kilometres from Taling Chan to Bang Sue. Project value is Bt8.748 billion.

The SRT sold bidding documents from December 3-12 and accepted bids yesterday.

Signing by the contractor should be performed next April, with construction to begin next May. The Red Line is scheduled to be operational from June 2011. About 3,000 households are estimated to be living along the construction area. The SRT earlier planned to spend Bt262 million to clear the area.

Watcharapong Thongrung

 The Nation