Court rejects plea for retrial in Hopewell case, upholds Bt24-bn compensation verdict
The Central Administrative Court has rejected the requests of the Ministry of Transport and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) for a retrial in the Hopewell case, a news source revealed on Friday.
The source cited the court order dated July 13, which not only rejected the Ministry of Transport’s argument that the case had expired in 1998, but also upheld the verdict of the Supreme Administrative Court.
The Supreme Administrative Court's ruling on the case in April 2019 had ordered the ministry and the SRT to pay about Bt24 billion in compensation to Hopewell for terminating the contract.
Hong Kong-based Hopewell Holding’s contract to build an elevated road and train system to ease traffic in the capital was terminated in 1997 when the country was hit by the “tom yam kung” financial crisis. About 10 per cent of the project had been completed at that point.
The long-running saga began in 1990 when the Chatichai Choonhavan government signed a 30-year concession with the private firm to build the Bt80-billion project.