New NGV Busses

[jackdd]

I was wondering what actually happened to the NGV busses in Bangkok which should have been on the streets since more than a year, i didn't see any update regarding this topic on Thaivisa.

For anybody who doesn't know what this is about, read this first: 

 

And then this:

 

By searching for some news about in on Google i found only an Article at Bangkok Post, so i can't post the link here, but it was posted there on 28.12.2017.

So according to this news the old contract was scrapped by the BMTA and they opened a new bidding. Which was now won by another company and the first busses should arrive in March this year.

According to the numbers from different news the old deal was about 3.3 billion THB, but somebody would have had to pay 590 million THB for the taxes. If let's say the BMTA would have offered to share this with the manufacturer they would have paid about 3.6 billion THB and the busses would have been on the street since a year already. Now for the new contract, which does provide the same things, they pay 4.26 billion THB.

The 100 Busses which are held by the customs will now probably just left rotting in the port instead of doing something useful and finding a way to somehow bring them on the street?

What do you think are the chances to see new busses in Bangkok this year?

[Thian]

Iirc the 100 buses were held by customs but there was a ship at the coast of thailand with another 250 buses on it....and the whole deal was about 3000 buses iirc, guess the rest was under production in China.

 

What happened with that ship with 250 buses? Did it ever deliver them on thai ground? And where did the 100 which were at the customs go?

[worgeordie]

They are parked in a Galaxy far,far away......along with the Fire engines.

there are so many stories you read about,and never get to know what

happened.

regards worgeordie

[Lakegeneve]

The 100 Dark Blue NGV buses are all parked at the huge MRTA HQ complex on the Thiam Ruttmit rd side and have been for over 6-8 months.

 

The MRTA has recently requested the owner to move them as they need access to the land which is where the new MRT Orange line depot is being built. The depot land is a long wedge immediately north of the current Blue Line depot. They may have already been moved in the last week or two?

 

The exact location is approx, https://goo.gl/maps/6hs3Y9W1B8F2

[Thian]

So they 100 buses are parked on a field for a year now, what are the plans for them? Maybe the owner better sells them before they are as old as the 300 firetrucks and won't run anymore?

 

And what are the plans for new citybuses? Is the government even thinking of it? 

 

I assume the press is not allowed to write about this but the buses are needed badly.

 

And what about the new piers for the passengerboats on the chao praya? Iirc they would build more piers, connect them to the purple line and also have better or even new passengerboats.

So far nothing has been done.

[ExpatOilWorker]

The original blue NGV buses will rot away, but new buses should arrive around March this year:

 

http://www.ngvglobal.com/blog/bangkok-mass-transit-bmta-orders-489-cng-buses-0110

[Thian]

4 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The original blue NGV buses will rot away, but new buses should arrive around March this year:

 

http://www.ngvglobal.com/blog/bangkok-mass-transit-bmta-orders-489-cng-buses-0110

That's great, but 110.000 us$ for a chinese bus is a lot me thinks, especially when one buys 489 of them in one deal.

 

Well i hope all goes well this time, you never know in thailand.

 

They can build bungalows in the old 100 buses and make a resort out of them. Strange that the owner didn't send them back to china or sells them. Or use them as greenhouses to grow food inside or have a massage-salon in it.

[dddave]

Those 100 buses will be tied up in red tape for years to come, just like the now 13 year old fire engines another poster alluded to.  

Long story short, they were supposed to have been manufactured in Malaysia and received customs exemptions based on a Thai-Malaysian trade agreement but after the initial delivery, customs determined that the OEM was Chinese and they had merely been re-branded.  The whole deal blew-up and the end result is Bangkokians still have to ride on derelict old clunkers for the foreseeable future.

[Thian]

5 hours ago, dddave said:

Those 100 buses will be tied up in red tape for years to come, just like the now 13 year old fire engines another poster alluded to.  

Long story short, they were supposed to have been manufactured in Malaysia and received customs exemptions based on a Thai-Malaysian trade agreement but after the initial delivery, customs determined that the OEM was Chinese and they had merely been re-branded.  The whole deal blew-up and the end result is Bangkokians still have to ride on derelict old clunkers for the foreseeable future.

Not only ride those old stinky things but also have to smell them all day long.

 

But who lost his/her money on those buses? Was that the importing company?

[jackdd]

3 minutes ago, Thian said:

But who lost his/her money on those buses? Was that the importing company?

Yes, unless they received any payment in advance, but in the news it didn't seem so.

 

On 27.1.2018 at 9:09 PM, Thian said:

They can build bungalows in the old 100 buses and make a resort out of them. Strange that the owner didn't send them back to china or sells them. Or use them as greenhouses to grow food inside or have a massage-salon in it.

Probably by now the owner has to pay more for the fines than the busses or worth, so they don't pay and don't get them back.

But of course the government could hurry a bit, and just claim them instead of the fines and use them before they are unusable.

Edited January 30, 2018 by jackdd

[dddave]

1 minute ago, Thian said:

ut who lost his/her money on those buses? Was that the importing company?

That I'm sure will take years to sort out and it will fade from the news, just like the fire engines and airport bomb detectors. There may be a blimp, submarine and space needle tossed in to the mix as well.

 

If the importer was well connected, there will doubtless be a way found to reimburse his losses at the expense of the Thai people.

[Thian]

4 hours ago, dddave said:

If the importer was well connected, there will doubtless be a way found to reimburse his losses at the expense of the Thai people.

If he was well connected they wouldn't make such an issue about the importtax and just accept the buses. Then we would have them already for a year.

 

Funny thing is that nobody in Thailand asks those kind of questions, who cares for taxpayers' money. And who cares if the new buses come or not...or those new piers and river passengerboats that were in the planning.

 

For the fire-engines the Austrian company who built them had to pay iirc, but i don't know if he paid the full amount back to thailand.

 

 

[Just Weird]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 9:09 PM, Thian said:

That's great, but 110.000 us$ for a chinese bus is a lot me thinks, especially when one buys 489 of them in one deal.

 

Well i hope all goes well this time, you never know in thailand.

 

They can build bungalows in the old 100 buses and make a resort out of them. Strange that the owner didn't send them back to china or sells them. Or use them as greenhouses to grow food inside or have a massage-salon in it.

The importer has to pay the fines and Customs duties incurred after it tried to defraud the Government before it will be allowed to do anything with them.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Just Weird