The Central Administrative Court on Monday dismissed a 148 million baht lawsuit filed against the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) by a group of 430 disabled people over its failure to improve access to the BTS sky train.
Previously, the group had lodged a petition with the Supreme Administrative court demanding the BMA provide elevators at all 23 BTS stations. In 2015 the court ordered City Hall to provide elevators at every station within a year, but the BMA only installed elevators at some stations, prompting disabled people to take their case to the Central Administrative Court to demand compensation for the failure to obey the Supreme Administration Court’s order.
The figure of 148 million baht was based on the estimation that each of the 430 disabled people in the case sustained damages of 1,000 baht a day from January 20th, 2016, the date that City Hall officially failed to satisfy the court’s order.
However, the court ruled that City Hall had not ignored the Supreme Administrative Court’s order or deliberately dragged its feet over installing the elevators, but had encountered some obstacles, causing delays in the installation.
