The opposition People’s Party will seek an explanation from the Office of the Secretary-General of the Lower House regarding the expansion of the parking facilities in the parliament complex.
Parit Wacharasindhu, a party MP and spokesman, said that the office recently announced the winning bidder for the design of the parking building, at a cost of 104.5 million baht.
He noted, however, that the parking building project, expected to cost about 1.53 billion baht, has not yet been approved by the Cabinet.
Parit said he understands the parking problem at parliament, but would like the authorities to assess the number of cars to be parked in the compound and to manage the existing parking space properly, before going ahead with constructing a new parking structure.
Parliament has sought a total budget of over 2.77 billion baht, including 1.53 billion for the next fiscal year, for renovation and additional construction at the parliament complex.
10 projects proposed for budgetary allocation for the 2026 fiscal year include:
· Renovation of the museum in parliament, 44 million baht.
· Renovation of the 4D mini theatre and conference hall, 180 million baht.
· Improving the lighting system in two seminar rooms, 117 million baht.
· Renovation of the two glass pavilions, 123 million baht.
· Renovation of the parliament chamber, 118 million baht.
· Renovation of the parliamentary kitchen, 117 million baht.
· Installation of an audio-visual system in the reception hall, 99 million baht.
· Procurement of an LED display screen, 72 million baht.
· Parliament landscape improvements and organic fertiliser production, 43 million baht.
· Renovation of the reception hall on the first floor, 43 million baht.
There are five more projects, worth about 1.82 billion baht, but the budget has not yet been approved by the Cabinet. These include:
· Constructing a new parking structure (incl. construction supervision and advisory costs), 1.53 billion baht.
· Design and decoration of the screen behind the parliament speaker’s chair in the Suriyan conference hall, 133 million baht.
· Procurement of security equipment to detect suspicious objects, 74 million baht.
· Anti-air pollution and air quality improvement systems, 50 million baht.
· Maintenance of the teak wood pillars, 31 million baht.
Parit pointed out that the 133 million baht for the decoration of the screen behind the speaker’s chair is totally unnecessary and extravagant.
He said that parliament is an organisation which decides how taxpayers’ money is to be used wisely and reasonably and should not be spending it wastefully on unnecessary projects initiated by the parliament itself.
