Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda on Tuesday denied an allegation by the opposition that the Gold Line rail project was approved by the cabinet in 2016 to benefit large businesses close to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The Gold Line is a small monorail being built on Charoen Nakhon Road in the Thon Buri area. The opposition made the allegation during the first day of the censure debate on Monday.
Endorsing the line was a collective decision and each cabinet member realised they would be held accountable, according to Gen Anupong.
"Gen Prayut couldn't simply order every cabinet minister to agree to something that might one day see him or her face a legal suit," he said.
The Gold Line is one of eight electric rail lines considered minor transport projects under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) public transport infrastructure development policy.
The BMA had assigned Krungthep Thanakom (KT), its business arm, to find a proper investment format for this project with the condition that this investment project must not rely on BMA funding, Gen Anupong explained.
KT eventually signed a memorandum of understanding with a number of companies interested in buying advertisements, which will be run on the Gold Line over the next 30 years, at a cost totalling more than 2 billion baht.
A new format of investment had then been adopted to allow private companies to wholly invest in new public transport projects, he said.
"People [critics] always think that because private companies are so rich they must have taken advantage of the system, and they also complain that the gap between rich and poor in society must be reduced. Please think again.
"Whom do you want to invest? If not domestic investors, then it must be foreigners. And if you don't allow foreigners [to invest], everybody just does nothing," the interior minister said.
As for the question of why the cabinet decided to grant an exemption to a 1994 cabinet resolution requiring all new electric rail lines to be built underground in the old town on Rattanakosin Island, he said the Gold Line will serve only as a short link to the existing Green Line, which is an above ground route.
The Gold Line, which is due to be completed in 2023, will link with the existing Green Line and the future Dark Red and Purple lines.