Way clear for joint rail project

Newly appointed Deputy Government Spokesman Colonel Weerachon Sukhondha-patipak said that under the agreement, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency would work with their Thai counterparts to develop and upgrade the railway system and connectivity within the Southern Economic Corridor linking Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The MLIT has also expressed its intention to develop the Bangkok-Rayong railway jointly with Thailand, an offer that is under the study of this country’s Transport Ministry.

"There was no mention at the meeting about the cost of the construction or how long the railways would be," Weerachon said, adding that the MoC would be signed by today in Tokyo.

Transport Minister Prajin Juntong told the Nation Multimedia Group this month that the high-speed railway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai would be 715 kilometres long and was scheduled to open in 2019.

He also said trains on the route were expected to be capable of 250km/h and the project’s value was estimated at Bt400 billion, thanks to a low-interest loan from Japan. The government hopes that the interest rate will not exceed 1.5 per cent.

The railway project is part of Thailand’s strategic transport connectivity plan, linking the mass-transit systems of big cities to small towns and neighbouring countries.

Port expansion

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also approved an investment of Bt1.864 billion by the Port of Authority to expand the Laem Chabang seaport. This will include the expansion of the port’s basic infrastructure and investment on major lifting and logistical equipment.

Deputy Spokesman Maj-General Sunsern Kaewkumnerd has said a number of government projects would be open for the public private partnership (PPP) model between 2015 and 2019.

The list of PPP projects includes six opt-out strategies (projects that require private involvement) and 14 opt-in strategies (those that do not require private involvement but are open for the PPP model), for a total of 65 projects worth around Bt1.41 trillion.

The opt-out development projects include urban transport systems (eight projects worth Bt568.157 billion), an urban tollway (one project worth Bt12.805 billion), seaport logistics (seven worth Bt132.155 billion), high-speed rail (two worth Bt233.849 billion), the telecommunication system (two projects worth Bt47.559 billion) and high-speed Internet (one project worth Bt20 billion).

Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said the Cabinet had approved another Bt50 million for the handout scheme for rubber farmers as the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) did not include its Bt15-per-person transaction fees in the original fund.

The one-time cash handout worth no more than Bt15,000 to each of some 850,000 rubber farmers across the country has already cost the government Bt8.5 billion. The Cabinet has negotiated with the BAAC to lower the transaction fee to Bt12 per person.

Budget Bureau director Somsak Chotrattanasiri said his agency and the government were confident that the state budget-disbursement target of 96 per cent would be met by the end of the fiscal year, as the disbursement rate in the first eight months was better than expected.

He said the government had disbursed around 64-65 per cent of its Bt450-billion investment budget so far in fiscal 2015, and if contracts that have already been signed were included, the rate would be around 68 per cent as of May 22.