Concerns over metallic plates used in building
The government is stepping up its probe into other construction projects linked to the Chinese contractor of the State Audit Office’s ( SAO ) under-construction building that collapsed in Bangkok during last Friday’s earthquake.
Speaking after Tuesday’s government meeting, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said she instructed different companies to evaluate all building tasks awarded to China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group.
The SAO contracted a collaboration of Italian-Thai Development Plc and China Railway No. 10 to build the 2.1-billion-baht tower.
” All concerned authorities were instructed to probe deeper to find out how many other tasks the company is undertaking”, the prime minister said.
She said the fell tower has cost lives and severely affected Thailand’s picture.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong has ordered the Department of Special Investigation ( DSI) to investigate, she added.
” All houses in Bangkok must satisfy legal requirements. Safety must be the major priority”, Ms Paetongtarn said.
She said a sensor would be launched into claims that metal plates used in the construction of the building were poor.
Apart from the SAO tower, various projects undertaken by China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group include the development of a tower of the Office of the National Water Resource and some parts of the Bangkok-Nong Khai high-speed rail project.
Deputy Commerce Minister Napintorn Srisunpang said an initial spacecraft has found that owners of China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group are linked with 13 various companies.
He said a spacecraft board set up by the Commerce Ministry will function with the Royal Thai Police’s Economic Crime Suppression Division and the Revenue Department to check whether the party was involved in any collaboration or used Thai contenders.
The government will forward the results to the DSI, Mr Napintorn said, adding an original test has found that 51 % of the team’s shares are held by Thais and 49 % by Chinese immigrants.
Bloomberg reported that the contractors of the under-construction office tower which collapsed in Bangkok used substandard steel bars made by a factory that had been shuttered by authorities.
Samples of two different sizes of steel bars collected from the site of the SAO building failed tests by the Iron and Steel Institute of Thailand for their mass, chemical composition and ability to withstand stress before breaking.
The metal was made by a company whose factory had been shut for other violations since December, Thitipas Choddaechachainun, the head of a working group at the Ministry of Industry, said without identifying the business.
Images of the steel bars shared by the ministry and local media displayed the brand “Sky”, made by Xin Ke Yuan Steel Co, which had a factory in Rayong province. Authorities closed the factory in December due to an accident involving a gas tank leak and seized more than 2, 400 tonnes of steel.
The 30-storey building was the only building to crumble in the Thai capital in the wake of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar. The collapse killed at least a dozen workers and trapped dozens more.
Xin Ke Yuan Steel is the second Chinese company to draw Thai scrutiny. The skyscraper was being built by ITD-CREC, a joint venture between SET-listed Italian-Thai Development Plc and China Railway No. 10 Thailand Co. Authorities will collect more steel samples and collaborate with the probe.
A US military scanning kit detects images of bodies trapped in the collapsed building. Fire &, Rescue Thailand