Transport Ministry eyes Bt1.9 tn for 55 mega-infrastructure projects

Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan said yesterday that the projects would be financed by part of the Bt2.2 trillion that the government plans to borrow for infrastructure investment.

The projects cover all four transport modes – road, rail, water and air:

lBt479 billion for land transport such as Bangkok’s third outer ring road.

lBt1.28 trillion for heavy rail such as the Bangkok-Chiang Mai high-speed train route and mass-transit light rail such as the Red Line (Bang Sue-Phyathai-Makkasan), Green Line (Mor Chit-Saphan Mai) and Pink Line (Khae Rai-Min Buri).

lBt128 billion for water transport such as the Pak Bara deep sea port.

lBt83.9 billion for aviation such as the second phase of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The criteria for implementing these projects are that they must be ready to be tendered or have already been approved by the Cabinet. If Parliament can pass the law to borrow Bt2.2 trillion quickly, the ministry will call tenders for these projects next year.

If all these projects materialise by 2020, they could cut the country’s logistics costs to Bt1.87 per kilometre from Bt1.99 if they are not, save Bt100 billion worth of time travelling by personal vehicles and reduce environmental costs by Bt3.6 billion.

They would increase the proportion of freight transport by rail to 5 per cent from 2.5 per cent last year, by water channels to 10.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent and by coastal marine to 7.5 per cent from 6 per cent. Passenger traffic through Suvarnabhumi would rise to 64 million per year from 47.4 million.

Total capacity of cargo transport would improve to 900 million tonnes per year from the current 700 million.