Evaluation of the Bangkok Urban Transport Project in Thailand
2005
The Project was approved in the early 1990s when traffic jams and air pollution in Bangkok were among the world's worst.
ADB's loan helped fund the Thonburi road extension, a dual three lane carriage way, described as a "missing link" in the city's primary road transport network. As a variety of agencies seemed to be handling Bangkok's transport sector inefficiently, the Government borrowed almost $10 million for institutional support aimed to enhance the capacity of the Office of the Commission for the Management of Land Traffic (OCMLT), the newly created transport supervisory agency.
OCMLT used consulting services to
- develop a transport database, as well as transport planning and policy models for the Bangkok Metropolitan Region;
- provide policy advice;
- resolve conflicts among Bangkok's megaprojects; and
- (iv) provide training.
Summary of Findings
There were some significant delays to the completion of the project: it was set to be completed in 1998, but was completed only by 2002.
The construction quality of the road was satisfactory. The road provides valuable traffic relief to the western areas of Bangkok, and the beneficial effects extend to much of central Bangkok. The evaluation mission reevaluated the road using the latest version of the transport model developed originally by the Project, and found that the road has a highly satisfactory economic internal rate of return of 28%. A secondary benefit of the Project was that the road's alignment allowed for the construction of an extension of the Skytrain, without land acquisition costs. Bus passengers received 45% of the project benefits through time savings, the dominant benefit.
The policy and capacity building components of the Project were implemented satisfactorily. OCMLT, now called the Office of Transport Planning and Policy (OTP), strengthened its position, and improved the coordination of megaprojects. Conflicts between major infrastructure projects of different agencies were reduced. The transport data and model prepared by project consultants has been continuously improved subsequently by OTP. Some consultants view it as equal or better than transport models used in many major cities in developed countries.
Issues
The report identifies a number of issues:
- Government agencies concerned with road construction must take a more systematic approach to environmental management, land acquisition, and resettlement;
- the assessment of road maintenance budget requirements needs to be more systematic;
- more attention must be paid to secondary and distributor roads in Bangkok;
- the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority's ability to manage land use and development, while improving, is still weak; and
- the Government has not made much headway in tapping some of the considerable wealth created by public investments in new or upgraded public roads and other transport facilities, which have increased the value of nearby privately owned land.
Lessons
- Urban transport investments that fill a missing link in the system can help to reduce poverty if buses are an important means of transport for the poor. Lower-income groups, which generally account for a large proportion of bus passengers, can enjoy significant time savings from such improvements.
- The potential adverse effects of new roads on environment and traffic accidents are less dependent on road expansion per se than on specific measures taken to mitigate these effects.
- To optimize the benefits of projects, primary road construction in urban areas must be assessed carefully in the context of needed supporting distributor roads and comprehensive land use management.
Interesting appendixes
 |
Topics 
Top of page
