Contractors plea for time

Infrastructure contractors have asked the Department of Rural Roads (DRR) to extend the deadline for construction projects due to the economic ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior official said.

DRR director-general Kaiwan Rojananukoon said 30-40 contractors awarded projects by the department have written to request such extensions. In light of this, the Comptroller-General’s Department has told the DRR that extensions are possible, though the DRR must determine whether the contractors have actually been affected by the pandemic as claimed.

The DRR is now verifying information submitted by the contractors. Mr

Kaiwan said the DRR had received a budget allocation of 45 billion baht this year for about 6,000 road projects aimed at stimulating the economy.

These range between small projects which would take 90 days or longer, to major projects which take about three years.

However, some contractors have abandoned projects — mostly worth about 100 million baht each — due to a lack of liquidity, he said.

Mr Kaiwan said the DRR has jurisdiction over a network of 50,000km of roads nationwide.

It also shares responsibility with local agencies to look after about 100,000km of local roads, though the department has only 1,000 engineers who face an overload of work.