Democrats on a House committee scrutinising the 2-trillion-baht borrowing bill yesterday asked the government to slash the loan to 200 billion baht.
Only the projects that could be implemented immediately should be funded under the infrastructure overhaul scheme, Democrat Party deputy leader and committee member Korn Chatikavanij said.
Based on a Democrats' review, the ready-to-go projects require only 200 billion baht. The loan should match that total, he said.
Mr Korn represents the minority vote on the parliamentary committee which is having government agencies submit additional details for each infrastructure project.
The committee should receive all of the information within the next two weeks, he said.
Democrat list-MP Samart Ratchapolsitte said several of the proposed projects were not ready to be implemented, including the high-speed train and other electric rail projects.
Still, the estimated cost of hiring consultants for each project would cost as much as 4-5% of the projects' overall value, he said.
The government should consider lowering the consultation costs, he said.
Transport Minister Chadchat Sittipunt, meanwhile, said he has instructed all the agencies to revise their projects in accordance with the House committee's recommendations.
The agencies must disclose their project revisions in a week, he said.
Among the recommended changes the ministry would consider adopting is calculating the projects' median prices for construction materials and consultation costs, he said.
Currently, the average cost of the consultation services was about 2.5-3% of the total 2-trillion-baht budget, or about 50 to 60 billion baht in total, he said.
"To invest in a megaproject, we cannot just focus on cutting the cost of hiring project consultants," Mr Chadchat said. "More details need to be taken into consideration."
In projects requiring advanced construction techniques like tunnelling, serious mistakes are unacceptable, he said. Hiring project consultants would be necessary as there are not enough specialists in the public sector.
Mr Chadchat said he also agreed with the House committee's suggestion that the Don Muang Tollway be extended to Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya province. The tollway currently ends in Pathum Thani's Rangsit area.
The proposed extension would benefit Northeast-bound transport, he said.
The 2-trillion-baht scheme would target particular areas of the country to maximise the use of the national transport system, he said.