RTP to appeal in station row

National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda says the Royal Thai Police (RTP) will appeal against the Chiang Mai Administrative Court’s decision ordering it to compensate PCC Development and Construction Co 96.9 million baht for partially built police stations.

Pol Gen Chakthip said yesterday he assigned acting adviser Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri to oversee the process.

Last Wednesday, the Chiang Mai Administrative Court ordered the RTP to pay the compensation for uncompleted construction work on police stations within 60 days.

PCC was hired to build 396 replacement stations nationwide between March 26, 2011 and June 15, 2012. The deadline was extended three times. The last deadline was on March 14, 2013.

In April, 2013, the RTP announced the cancellation of the contract, saying PCC had failed to meet deadlines, with only 12% of the project completed over 755 days.

PCC took the RTP to court, arguing the cancellation was unlawful as the RTP was slow in providing land for the project and in approving construction plans, causing delays.

The contractor also argued the RTP was too slow to pay construction costs, causing liquidity problems, and did not appoint sufficient work supervisors.

PCC asked the court to order the RTP to pay compensation of 1.054 billion baht.

The Chiang Mai Administrative Court found PCC had worked on 335 stations, but most were only partly finished, and it had not done any work on 61 others. The RTP had the right to cancel the contract and hire another contractor, the court ruled.