The opposition People’s Party has vowed to continue monitoring 4.4 billion baht worth of development projects at Trang airport, which are now expected to be at least partly finished next month.
Rukchanok Srinork, a party MP for Bangkok and a member of the House committee monitoring state budget spending, said one of the four projects is due to be completed in June, after the previous contractor abandoned the work when it was 98% done.
A new contractor was selected to take over and is on course to finish soon, she said. Dubbed “Project 2”, it involves a new passenger terminal building costing 1.06 billion baht.
“Congratulations to the people of Trang. At long last, one more of the many long-delayed government projects is about to be crossed off the list,” said Ms Rukchanok.
Members of the committee recently visited the southern province to inspect progress there and at other long-overdue projects elsewhere, said Ms Rukchanok. Before the visit, the committee held an inquiry into the delays affecting the airport projects.
Danai Ruengsorn, director-general of the Department of Airports, said the main cause was the original contractor abandoning the work.
The department has since scrapped that contract and signed a new agreement to complete Project 2, at a cost of 34 million baht, he said. A security deposit of 53 million baht, forfeited by the previous contractor, has been retained.
By June, the work carried out by the new contractor will be completed and part of the terminal will be opened to domestic airlines. The entire terminal, serving both domestic and international flights, is expected to be open by October, Mr Danai said.
The remaining work involves installation of a baggage-handling system and management software, Ms Rukchanok said.
As for the other plans, Project 1 — runway reinforcement, a new taxiway and aprons, and electrical systems, with a budget of 678.4 million baht — is now complete, she said.
Project 3, which involves extending the runway, adding electrical systems and other infrastructure, with a budget of 1.77 billion baht, is 37% complete. And Project 4, which deals with land expropriation for the expanded runway, is 51% complete, up from around 30% earlier this year, the MP said.
The project was originally allocated 868.8 million baht but as this has all been used up an extra 600 million baht is needed to see it through, Ms Rukchanok added.