New ToR for rail projects due in April
The drafting of new terms of reference (ToR) for five double-track railway projects should be completed next month, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) acting chief says.
Anon Luangboriboon, acting SRT governor, said the rail agency is revising the ToR as suggested by the scrutiny superboard for state procurement projects chaired by Prasarn Trairatvorakul.
The original ToR of the five projects worth a total of 95.8 billion baht was recently scrapped by the Prasarn panel and the SRT’s board following a probe into alleged irregularities in the SRT’s multibillion-baht double-track railway projects.
The projects are the 19-billion-baht Nakhon Pathom-Hua Hin section; the 23-billion-baht Lop Buri-Pak Nam Pho section; the 28-billion-baht Map KabaoThanon Chira Junction section; the 9.8-billion-baht Hua Hin-Prachuap Khiri Khan section; and the 16-billion-baht Phrachuap Khiri Khan-Chumphon section.
Mr Anon said once the new ToR are approved, they will serve as guidelines for the drafting of the ToR for the second phase of nine double-track railway projects worth 395 billion baht and covering 2,217km.
The projects are the 56-billion-baht Pak Nam Pho-Den Chai section; the 35-billionbaht Thanon Chira-Ubon Ratchathani section; the 26-billion-baht Khon Kaen-Nong Khai section; the 23-billion-baht Chumphon-Surat Thani section; and the 51-billion-baht Surat Thani-Songkhla section.
They also include the 7.9-billion-baht Hat Yai-Padang Besar section; 60-billionbaht Den Chai-Chiang Mai section; 77-billion-baht Den Chai-Chiang Rai-Chiang Khong section and 60-billion-baht Ban Phai-Mukdahan-Nakhon Phanom section.
The acting governor declined to comment on a report the superboard has decided to divide the work into 13 smaller contracts each of which would be worth 5-10 billion baht, to spur competition.
He said once the superboard reaches a decision, it will inform the SRT.
“I heard the superboard met [yesterday] but they didn’t ask the SRT to attend. I think it is an internal meeting and it didn’t ask for more information from the SRT,” he said.
Mr Prasarn said yesterday the SRT board has agreed to revise the ToR of the five double-track rail projects as advised by the superboard and this has been reported to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The Transport Ministry will submit the new guidelines for the drafting of ToR to the cabinet for approval, and after that the new ToR will be drawn up and forwarded to the cabinet for endorsement, he said.
According to Mr Prasarn, three core changes will be made to the ToR of the five double-track projects.
First, a requirement for the contractors to hand over machinery used in the construction will be dropped.
Next involves contractors’ experience which will be lowered to having completed a project with a value of at least 10% of the project they are bidding for, from 15%.
The last is the division of contracts into nine construction contracts, three signalling installation contracts, and one contract for tunnel construction.