Highways Dept under budget pressure as costs soar

Seri Sungam, the department's chief engineer overseeing construction, said yesterday that he expected the Budget Bureau would not increase the 2009 budget - starting this October - for the department.

The department is in need of more money to pay contractors, which are requesting higher payments in line with the rising cost of construction materials.

A Cabinet resolution of June 17 allows qualified private contractors to delay the signing of construction contracts with state agencies until the agencies adjust project budgets in line with soaring material costs.

Seri said there were 10 projects, worth a combined Bt3.13 billion, for which the Highways Department had yet to sign contracts with the bid winners. Among them are the construction of Phase I of the Chiang RaiChiang Khong Highway, worth Bt540 million; and two sections of the Phase II, Part I of the UttaraditDenchai Highway, together worth Bt500 million; and Part III of the UttaraditDenchai Highway, worth Bt490 million.

The department has 28 other projects worth a combined Bt11.1 billion waiting to be put up for bidding by auction. It might revise the budgets for each of these to be in line with current constructionmaterial prices.