V/Gov Vikrom explained at a meeting of the provincial Management of Land Traffic committee last Thursday (Dec 3) that the official approval was granted last Wednesday (Dec 2).
“The Express Authority of Thailand [EXAT] can now work further on the ‘Public Private Partnership’ process [in opening the project to bids],” V/Gov Vikrom said.
“We expect that this project will be proposed to the Cabinet meeting soon, in order to approve EXAT to launch bids for investment in this project before the end 2022.
“The construction of the project is expected to complete and open for the public in 2027,” V/Gov Vikrom said.
Deputy Government Spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul announced last month that the Cabinet had promised for construction of the Patong Tunnel to start in 2023.
“As planned, the process of selection for private companies to join the project will take from June 2021 to Jan 2023. The project construction will be from Feb 2023 to Jan 2027, and [the tunnel will] open for service in Feb 2027,” Ms Traisuree said.
EXAT Governor Suchart Chonsakpipat in Phuket in December last year said that he hoped the Patong Tunnel to open by 2026.
However, he pointed that that all the land required still had yet to be acquired from private landowners.
“For this project, the government has to pay landowners B5.792 billion in compensation in order to acquire the land needed, and total construction cost for the project is B8.385bn,” Mr Suchart said.
“The total cost for this project is around B14.177bn,” he said plainly.
Kurt | 09 December 2020 - 11:16:17