Former Bangkok deputy governor Samart Ratchapollasit on Friday urged Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to reconsider plans to build an elevated expressway above Kaset-Nawamin Road, saying the light-rail line initially proposed would cost less, carry more people and create less pollution.
Writing on his Facebook page, the former Democrat city official said last month's decision to scrap the light-rail project proposed by the previous government in favour of an expressway that has faced years of objections was flawed for many reasons.
The third-stage expressway development linking western Bangkok to the eastern motorway will run from the Khae Rai intersection on Ngam Wong Wan Road along Kaset-Nawamin Road and Kanchanaphisek Road in the east (Bang Pa-in-Bang Phli).
The light-rail project was proposed to replace a controversial section of the planned expressway near Kasetsart University. The project had been on and off the table for years. However, after the May 22 coup, the military-led cabinet ordered a new study of the project.
Mr Samart said construction of the expressway would cost about 2.6 billion baht per kilometre versus 1.6 billion baht/km for a monorail, based on projections for the scuttled Pink Line. That's 56% more, he calculated.
At six lanes wide, the expressway would be 30 metres wide versus a maximum seven metres for a train. That would require the Expressway Authority of Thailand to spend 44.1 billion baht, or 40.2% of project's cost, on land expropriation, Mr Samart contended.
The expressway will be able to accommodate up to 6,000 vehicles per hour each way, or an average 7,200 people per hour. Light-rail, he estimated, can transport 15,000-40,000 commuters per hour in each direction.
Noise and physical pollution would also be higher with the highway, Mr Samart argued. Construction of a new motorway only encourages more vehicle use, resulting in higher emissions and air pollution.
Mr Samart concluded by predicting the Exat would suffer huge losses from the project, as some sections of the new highway had to compete with the Purple Line mass-transit route. Besides, he said, the expressway will only solve temporarily traffic problems. It was not as sustainable a solution as rail.