The government's planned megaprojects under the two-trillion-baht infrastructure loan bill will not overlap with existing projects under fiscal 2013, Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt said on Monday.
However, he said, the Ministry of Transport has requested money from the fiscal budget to finance the BTS sky train's purple line connecting Bang Sue and Bang Yai and green line connecting Mochit and Saphan Mai. Both lines are infrastructure overhaul projects.
Mr Chadchart explained that he made the request due to the Finance Ministry's proposal to change the loan method during the final loan period of the purple line sky train project.
The Finance Ministry suggested that the Transport Ministry make domestic loans instead of getting loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) because of the lower cost of capital.
The budget for the green line rose to 50 billion baht from 20 billion baht due to the seven-kilometre expansion from the previous construction plan, Saphan Mai to Khu Khot, which increased the construction cost by nine billion baht, Mr Chadchart said.
The project paid out 7.6 billion baht as compensation for expropriation, 5.3 billion baht more than the set fee. The original budget also did not cover the cost of purchasing additional sky trains which cost around 20 billion baht.
According to the legislation for the two-trillion-baht infrastructure loan bill, budgets of projects under the bill and outside of it cannot overlap. Projects under the agreement can be cancelled if the decision is deemed appropriate, if a project does not pass an environmental impact assessment, or if it is part of a public-private partnership.