EDITORIAL
For the second time, the Transport Ministry's controversial proposal to rent for 10 years 6,000 buses - NGV-fuelled and equipped with air-conditioning, GPS navigation and e-ticketing systems - has been put on hold by the cabinet.
Clearly the delay is caused by the government's need to devote all its attention to the 40-billion-baht, six-measure relief package for low-income people. The Transport Ministry itself will chip in through the measure to allow free service for commuters on Bangkok's non-airconditioned buses.
The measure gives some food for thought. Assuming the non-airconditioned buses are the preferred mode of transport for the poor, what use will the ministry's ambitious bus rental scheme be, considering members of the middle class would prefer such mass transit systems as the subway or skytrain? How worthwhile is the project, billed to cost taxpayers upward of 100 billion baht?
Last week the national rail and mass transport development committee chaired by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej gave the go-ahead to the NGV bus rental proposal to be managed by the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). Transport Minister Santi Promphat said the proposal would be ready for consideration by the cabinet this week.
The NGV bus rental scheme was called into question since it was first aired in early June. Deputy Transport Minister Songsak Thongsri was grilled extensively about the project by the opposition during last month's censure debate. At that time most of the questions centred on the price tag for the project, originally estimated at 111.69 billion baht over 10 years. The cost boils down to around 18.3 million baht (about $600,000) per vehicle, paving the way for charges of corruption. In comparison, a website for the Cincinnati Ohio Metro lists its cost per bus at around $300,000 for outright ownership. The proposal was also criticised for seeking only one private partner for the lease contract. To counter that, the development committee said it would use an electronic bidding procedure known as e-auction to ensure transparency and get the best deal possible.
But even if it can be shown that all is transparent and above board, there is still the major issue which cabinet must consider: the overall suitability and worthiness of such an expensive project. The transport minister keeps arguing that the rental is necessary otherwise the debt-ridden BMTA would go bust within a decade. But why would we want to keep the organisation in the black when fewer and fewer people are likely to ride their buses in the next 10 years? Shouldn't the primary goal of a mass transit project be to relieve traffic congestion and provide the fastest, cleanest and most reliable means of transportation to the city people?An addition of thousands of public buses on Bangkok's notoriously congested roads appears more ominous than promising in the short term. As for the long-term prospects, the cabinet must seriously ask if it would be better to channel the lion's share of the necessary funding into rail-based mass transit projects?
Buses will, of course, remain part of Bangkok's transport equation and every effort should be made to replace diesel vehicles, both BMTA- and privately-operated, with less costly and cleaner NGV and other alternatives. However, instead of adding more fancy buses to its fleet, the BMTA might better fulfil its duty to the low-income segment of the population by keeping the low-price, non-airconditioned fleet for those who prefer it to the other, more expensive options.
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