The Thai cabinet approved a Baht 1.8 trillion (USD 50.3bn) investment plan comprising 20 transport projects drawn up by the Ministry of Transport and designed to kick-start the country’s economy.
The programme includes road, rail, airport and port schemes, and the transport minister Mr Arkhom Termpittayapaisith says the first six projects worth Baht 186bn (USD 5 billion) will be ready to go out to tender before the end of the first quarter of 2016, while tenders will be invited for the remaining 14 by 2017.
There are two rail projects in the first wave: a double-track standard-gauge line from Khon Kaen to Nakhon Ratchasima, which will form the first section of a new 873km line from Nong Khai near the border with Laos to Rayong on the Gulf of Thailand with a branch from Kaeng Khoi to Bangkok. The government will sign an MoU with China on December 19 to build the 180km/h railway at an estimated cost of Baht 400bn (USD 11 billion). The other railway project entails the construction of a freight depot at Laem Chabang.
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