Asoke Montri Road residents oppose BMA elevated road

Campaigners criticised the BMA, which wanted to alleviate heavy traffic congestion from this bottleneck road, for relying on an outdated principle which should have been materialised in 1962 when the road was to be incorporated into the present-day Inner Ring Road consisting of Ratchaphisek Road and either new or existing streets.

A leader of the Rak Asok group, Kittiphan Jaidee, said an elevated ramp could have been built 51 years ago when this Inner Ring Road project was initiated. He said this Bt5-billion project was not a foolproof solution to tackle the congestion problem at this bottleneck. Apart from pollution, which will occur when exhaust fumes from cars running under the inverted U-shaped tunnel are blocked, intoxicating pedestrians and residents living in shophouses along the road, the project would also bring down prices of land in the area, regarded as one of Bangkok’s prime locations.

The proposed project starts at Rama IX intersection, along the north-south Ratchadaphisek path intersecting Rama IX Road, and ends at Rama IV intersection where the path intersects Sukhumvit Road. It will require a huge amount of land, as Bt2 billion of the entire project cost is earmarked for land expropriation.

He said there had been no such a large-sized project in modern metropolitan cities, and governments in developed countries were instead turning to build or further expand public transport to serve city commuters rather than build more roads or elevated ramps in already crowded capitals. A consortium of consulting companies had also lied to the public that they had organised mandatory public hearings, Kittiphan said, adding: “They just held minor meetings of people but told the public that these meetings were public hearings that were held completely.” 

Letters were sent out to 248 people whose land would be expropriated, he said, citing the firms’ claims, but 205 people turned up. Only 74 people answered the questionnaire and 86 per cent of them disapproved of the project. 

Kittiphan said he and other campaigners would petition the Central Administrative Court, seeking to halt the project, citing their civil rights recognised under the Constitution’s Article 57.

A senior engineer with Arsom Silp Institute of Arts, Choowit Sujachaya, said the Asoke Montri elevated road project was useless. He said the inverted U-shaped structure with eight lanes would act like a box trapping toxic fumes, harming pedestrians, motorcyclists and commuters in non-air-conditioned city buses. “The project simply overlooks ways of improving the life of residents their health and environment,” he added.

Bangkok has total road length of 5,400km, while 5 million sedans, 2.5 million motorcycles on the roads every day cover a total distance of 20,000km. “Mathematically, building more and more roads can never solve the traffic congestion problem and the right solution is to build and expand public transport, especially the rail-based mode,” he added.

Asoke Montri Road project manager Somkiat Triamjaeng-arun said the design of the elevated road structure was complete, pending approval by the BMA’s Public Works Department, and final approval from Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra. A Bangkok City Assembly member, Prasit Raksalam, said the project would also require Cabinet approval for relevant land expropriation.