Green Line debt will be paid before deadline: Bangkok governor
Chadchart confident BMA will be able to pay BTSC the 14 billion baht it owes within the January 22, 2025, deadline set by court
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt believes that the 14 billion baht owed to the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTSC) will be paid before the court deadline of January 22, 2025.
He was speaking to reporters on Tuesday after meeting BTSC chairman Keeree Kanjanapas to discuss the debt repayment. He said he had already asked the Bangkok Metropolitan Council to approve the budget.
The Supreme Administrative Court had on July 26 given the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and its business arm Krungthep Thanakom (KT) 180 days to come up with 11.75 billion baht owed to BTSC. This amount would cover the operating and maintenance (O&M) costs of the Green Line’s Saphan Taksin-Bang Wa and On Nut-Kheha extensions from 2019 to 2021. The debt plus interest adds up to around 14 billion baht and the 180 days will be up on January 22 next year.
This is the first of the three portions of the debt that the city owes to the electric train operator.
The second and third portions cover the O&M costs for the two sections from June 2021 to October 2022 at 11.81 billion baht, and from November 2022 to June 2024 at 13.51 billion baht.
The BTSC filed a court case for the payment of the second portion of the debt on November 22, 2022.
“The talk with BMA today helped ensure us of the city’s effort in settling the debt,” Keeree said. “We hope to be paid as soon as possible, so we can start services at other stations.”
Earlier, the BMA had said it was looking into the ruling of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) regarding the illegality of the Green Line train contract before paying the debt.
In January 2023 the NACC had ruled that then-Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra and 13 others had violated the 1992 Private Participation in State Undertaking Act and the 1999 Act Concerning Offences Relating to the Submission of Bids to Government Agencies
in hiring BTSC to operate three extension sessions of Green Line from 2021 to 2042.
Interpretation of NACC’s ruling should be completed before the 180-day deadline for the repayment of the debt arrives, the BMA said.
