Five rail contracts up for grabs next year, SRT says
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will open bidding for five parallel railroads next year, starting with two early in the year.
All five will be standard 1-metre gauge.
The first two projects are the 185-kilometre route worth Bt26 billion between the Chira junction in Nakhon Ratchasima and Khon Kaen in the Northeast and the 167km route valued at Bt17 billion between Prachuap Khiri Khan and Chumphon.
Soithip Traisuth, permanent secretary of the Transport Ministry, revealed this at a seminar on the government concept of establishing a department to oversee the track-based transport system as part of the policy to reform the national logistics system.
The last three routes are expected to be put out for tender late next year. They are Map Kabao in Saraburi-Chira junction, Lop Buri-Pak Nampho in Nakhon Sawan, and Nakhon Pathom-Hua Hin.
Construction of the two extensions of the Red Line mass-transit route in Bangkok will also be open to bidding late next year. They are the 6.5km extension from Bang Sue to Hua Lamphong and the 19.5km extension from Bang Sue to Phaya Thai and Hua Mark. Next month the first two locomotives procured from China will be delivered to serve cargo transport between Laem Chabang and Map Ta Phut. All 20 locomotives are expected to be received by June.
The establishment of the railway department should see concrete results in June. It will definitely not make other state departments redundant, Soithip said. The SRT board early this week approved Wuthichart Kalyanamitra, president of The Transport Company, as the new SRT governor, after he scored the highest in the selection process.
