Sluggish land expropriation and poor state management are being blamed for the slow start of at least two motorway projects being pushed by the current administration.
The projects are the Bang Yai section of the Nonthaburi-Kanchanaburi route, and the Nakhon Pathom-Cha-am portion of the Phetchaburi section.
Only the motorway stretching from Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya to Nakhon Ratchasima is reported to have moved ahead in terms of starting construction.
The three projects are set to cost almost 200 billion baht.
According to Transport Ministry sources, the prices of land subject to expropriation on both the Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi and Nakhon Pathom-Cha-am sections have risen by 100-200% since the projects were approved by the government.
Anon Luangboriboon, chief of the Department of Highways (DoH), said a steady rise in market prices is to blame for increases in the price of land to be expropriated.
The government has also changed its method of land appraisal by considering market rates over the prices evaluated by the state agency, he said.
He said officials are struggling to expropriate land in the Bang Yai area because prices in the area are rising due to the presence of the Purple Line electric train project and several newly-built shopping malls.
The state's price appraisals were made more than seven years ago and a new set of evaluations must be undertaken to seek a larger budget for land expropriation from the government, Mr Anon said.
He said that only about 25% of the land along the Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi motorway project, or 1,000 of 4,000 land plots, has been reclaimed by officials.
Mr Anon said the DoH now hopes the cabinet will set aside at least another 8 billion baht for the project.
"As the construction of the motorway has been beset by delays for more than a year, the project is likely to be launched in 2023 or 2024 instead," said Mr Anon.
The expropriation is likely to affect more than 1,000 houses and 5,000 land plots in Nonthaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi and Kanchanaburi.
Around 200 local people in tambon Bang Taku of Nakhon Pathom's Muang district earlier demanded compensation for the land expropriation.
Although the compensation was approved by the government two years ago, none of the residents have received anything in return for the land expropriation that has already taken place.
Some said they needed to borrow money from banks to build houses on new land, and they are now shouldering substantial interest payments on those loans.
Referring to a new, planned third outer-ring road project in eastern Bangkok, Mr Anon said the 52-kilometre scheme is still undergoing feasibility evaluation, but has already drawn opposition from residents, who want authorities to change the entrance and exit of the route around the Pruksa Ville housing estate.
A DoH source said the slow progression of the motorway project also stems from a lack of state officials to deal with the land expropriation process.
"Today the Bureau of Right of Way (RoW) [under the DoH] employs 140 officials, or less than half the staff that it had in the past. This could affect the Transport Ministry's plan to develop intercity highway networks," the source said.
"The projects may not be able to move ahead if the land cannot be expropriated."
According to the source, of the 50 people recruited by the DoH in 2016, only one chose to work for the RoW.
The DoH, meanwhile, needs to recruit employees to assist the RoW officers at a ratio of four employees per official, the source said, adding these employees are paid 400 baht per day.
Last year, the DoH came up with a plan to recruit another 100 personnel but it is still unknown how many of them wish to serve as RoW officers.
According to the source, there is only one RoW officer per province in areas like Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Phetchabun and Phitsanulok.
