[A bit of background on Supoj Saplom - quite a high-flyer as civil servants go, chairing both State Railway of Thailand and Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand]


Supoj appointed permanent secretary for Transport

Published on September 15, 2009


The Cabinet Tuesday approved the appointment of Highways Department Director-General Supoj Suplom as the new permanent secretary for Transport Ministry.

The Cabinet approved the proposal of the Bhum Jai Thai Party to give the top post at the ministry to Supoj.


The Nation

.....

Bhum Jai Thai bolstering Transport Ministry permanent secretary's oversight

By Watcharapong Thongrung
The Nation
Published on February 2, 2010

The Bhum Jai Thai Party intends to strengthen the oversight ability of the Transport Ministry's permanent secretary in the area of rail development.

The move is a bid to ensure the scheduled bidding of many projects worth hundreds of billions of baht can start this year.

The Cabinet today will be asked to approve a new board of directors for the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). Transport Ministry permanent secretary Supoj Saplom will chair the board, replacing deputy permanent secretary Tawalyarat Onsira, who resigned recently, said a ministry source.

The source said Newin Chidchob, de-facto leader of the Bhum Jai Thai Party, was behind the move.

"Supoj has been tasked with overseeing the entire railroad-development plan, which covers the Mass Rapid Transit Authority and the SRT. This will ensure the ministry can open bidding for the projects under the Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) stimulus package," the source said.

Meanwhile, Tawalyarat has been tipped to become a director at Airports of Thailand, to help former Transport Ministry permanent secretary Piyapan Jampasut, who was earlier appointed AOT chairman.

The ministry source said the road had been "paved with roses" for Supoj to assume control of the rail-development process ever since the day Newin's right-hand man, Sophon Saram, became transport minister.

Supoj, then director-general of both the Highways Department and the Rural Roads Department, was promoted to permanent secretary.

In his new capacity, he oversees his old Highways and Rural Roads departments. Both departments are allocated Bt39 billion under the first phase of the TKK scheme.

Some TKK money will be used to build dust-free roads despite criticism regarding possible corruption. In the first phase, 901 dust-free roads are planned for a combined length of 3,246 kilometres at a cost of Bt14.82 billion.

Of the Bt39-billion TKK budget, Bt10.36 billion had been disbursed by last month.

The source said Newin's group was pushing for several rail-investment projects, such as "Railroad Reform for Public Safety", which will require Bt153 billion between now and 2014. Most of the money will finance replacement of wood sleepers with concrete ones, new locomotives and improvements in train-road barriers.

Another major project is the investment in the double-track rail project, measuring 767 kilometres.

Moreover, the ministry will also push forward bidding for the Blue Line electric-train project, a revision of Bangkok Metro's concession and the second phase of the dust-free road construction under the TKK scheme, the source said.

The term of reference for the Bt52.26-billion Blue Line project have been sold, while an additional 1,983.5 kilometres of dust-free roads will be constructed next year at a cost of Bt9.76 billion.

Details of all of the projects will be complete next month, with bidding starting shortly afterward.

"Having Supoj as SRT chairman will facilitate project implementation," the source said.

The ministry also recently pushed hard for the 4,000 natural-gas-for-vehicles buses to proceed, which entails replacing the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority's entire fleet at a cost of Bt66 billion.

The bus project was first proposed in the Samak Sundaravej government, and Bhum Jai Thai has relentlessly pushed for it despite the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration recently cutting the target from 6,000 new buses to 4,000.