Amid allegations of irregularity, the Treasury Department has clarified that the controversial 4.62 billion baht Bangkok Observation Tower project is a public-private partnership project to honour the late King Bhumibol.

On 29 June 2017, Finance Minister Col Apisak Tantivorawong issued a clarification to the public on the controversial land deal for the Bangkok Observation Tower project, which the cabinet swiftly approved on 27 June.      

Under the project, the 459-metre tower will be situated on four rai of land owned by the Treasury Department on Charoen Nakhon Road, next to the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. The department will get 70 million baht from a 30-year lease from the Bangkok Observation Tower Foundation, which is much lower than the market rate for land in the area.  

“We consider that the project is about the land and the project is in accordance with government policy. If it was open for bidding for private developers, no one might be interested because the value of the project is quite high. Also [we] don’t know whether it will be worth the investment,” said Apisak. “The top [of the tower] is for an exhibition about the scientific work of the [late] King.”

On the same day, the Treasury Department published a statement on its website, pointing out that the project is social not commercial because the Department has since 2015 had a policy to use the land for a project to honour the late King Bhumibol.

The Bangkok Observation Tower Foundation comprises 50 private companies and financial institutions who share a similar vision on how the land should be developed, the Department added.

Many people, however, are suspicious about the fast-track approval for the project located close to Icon Siam, a mega-riverside shopping complex, which is a joint venture development project of the Charoen Pokphand Group, Siam Piwat, and Magnolia Quality Development Corporation.

According to a post on the Facebook account of Thapanee Ietsrichai, a journalist from Channel 3, the project is also located close to an old Muslim community which will surely be affected by the construction, adding that the community has already been affected by the construction of Icon Siam shopping complex.

She added that on 28 June she contacted the Foundation for an interview, but has not received any reply as yet.    

An unofficial artist’s impression of the Bangkok’s Observation Tower (Photo from Thapanee's Facebook)