Thai deputy Prime Minister, Pridiyathorn Devakula, said that during a meeting with the French ambassador to Thailand, Thierry Viteau, he learned that France was interested in investing in the projects. Earlier, China, Japan and Germany voiced interest in the projects.
Thailand has signed initial agreements with Japan and China for collaboration on the construction of several dual-track railway projects, while last week Germany showed interest in the Bangkok-Hua Hin line.
He said the government had instead asked France to participate in bidding for an operation licence for urban-rail lines, with the auction expected to take place this year, as France had the technology relevant to electric trains.
The deputy prime minister said the government should at this time consider project bids from only those countries (Japan and China) it had already signed agreements with.
Pridiyathorn that said if France was still interested in a high-speed-rail project, it would have to discuss the matter with the next government.
He said construction of the routes under the China partnership was expected to start first because China was already studying those projects.
Japan had asked permission to start studying the routes, but had no construction plan yet.
source: www.nationmultimedia.com
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