Transport ministry expedites spending of mega projects

After a meeting with high-ranking officials yesterday, he said he had put permanent secretary Surachai Thansitpong in charge of a group consulting with four committees working on land, marine, aviation and rail-related projects.

"I believe each committee will help push several projects, especially the mass-transit train projects," Santi said.

The suburban train project will help save people Bt700 a day on their commuting costs, he said.

A US$400-million (Bt13.9 billion) loan from China will be used for State Railway of Thailand projects, including the commuter train and double-track railway projects.

Surachai said the committees were designed to accelerate disbursement of the fiscal-2009 investment budget of Bt150 billion as targeted, Bt64 billion of which is for government projects, Bt69 billion for state-enterprise projects and Bt19 billion for carry-over projects.