The Transport Ministry has found the 80-rai plot it needs to relocate the Mo Chit 2 bus terminal to the Rangsit area, to serve the North and Northeast. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
The Transport Ministry has chosen the Rangsit area as the location for the new northern and northeastern inter-provincial bus terminal.
The terminal, which will cover at least 80 rai can be located on either side of Phahon Yothin Road and must not be any further from Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus in northern Bangkok, Transport permanent secretary Soithip Traisuth said Tuesday after a meeting to discuss the relocation of the Mor Chit 2 terminal on Kamphaeng Phet Road.
Transport Co has been asked to look for an area for the terminal, she said.
Meanwhile, the current 70-rai Mor Chit 2 terminal will be downsized to a 16.43-rai facility serving short-haul and non-scheduled buses, she said.
The facility will also house 3,197 public vans operated by Transport Co.
The remaining space will return to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) for the train hub at Bang Sue.
“We have decided that parts of the Mor Chit 2 terminal will be relocated and the new terminal will be built in Rangsit,” said Ms Soithip.
The relocation effort would be completed by 2017, just as construction of the Bang Sue train hub will commence, she said.
Noppharat Karunyavanich, acting chief of Transport Co, said private entities will be invited to offer land plots for sale for the terminal. The bus hub needs at least 80 rai of land with the front stretching at least 80 metres, he said.
That matter is likely to be concluded by next month.
Construction of the new terminal is expected to kick off next year and last for two years, said Mr Noppharat, adding the service could begin by 2018.
Mr Noppharat said the terminal project has been scaled down from the earlier plan for a terminal covering 150 rai of land, for the sake of management agility.
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, which is conducting the feasibility study for the project, will need to re-assess the cost, but it would be certainly lower than the 4 billion baht earlier given, he said. The assessment, he said, could be concluded and sent to the board of the Transport Co this month.
Meanwhile, the MHSC Consortium says it has reached an agreement with the SRT to supply the electrical and mechanical system and train carriages for the Red Line railway, on the Bang Sue-Rangsit section and Bang Sue-Taling Chan section, at a cost of 32.5 billion baht.
The consortium, comprising Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Hitachi Co and Sumitomo Corp, earlier offered the lowest bid of 49 billion baht and won the deal.
The price was still higher than the government’s median price of 27.9 billion baht set in a cabinet resolution in 1999 and the later adjusted median price of 30.5 billion baht, prompting talks between the SRT and the consortium. Transport Minister Prajin Juntong said the SRT and the consortium agreed a price of 32.5 billion baht is reasonable.
The SRT board will send the issue to the State Enterprise Policy Office and the State Enterprise Policy Commission, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. The issue will then be sent to the cabinet for approval, he said.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/616080/new-bus-terminal-to-be-built-in-rangsit
