'Water contracts by October'
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CONTRACTS FOR THE government's Bt350-billion water-management mega-project will likely be signed by October, Deputy PM Plodprasop Suraswadi said.
The minister made the prediction despite the Central Administrative Court’s ruling that public hearings must be held for any projects that could affect local people before any contracts are signed. The government’s appeal against this ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court, asking it to show the green light for its ambitious plans, is ongoing.
“Although the court’s ruling might cause some slight delays in the procedure, the project will continue without changes,” Plodprasop said.
Public hearings on those project modules that require them would be held in the affected provinces, one by one, starting from this month and would take up to three months to complete, he said.
Plodprasop said contracts should be signed in September for projects that don’t require environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports and in October for those that do. He also said that the four bid-winning companies could communicate with the public prior to the contract signings.
