Committee sets framework for review of Thailand’s Land Bridge project
The committee will use recent studies as its base, consider updated factors and set up three subcommittees to support the Land Bridge review.
- The committee's review will be based on recent feasibility studies from 2022 and 2025, and will be updated to include current geopolitical factors, economic returns, and competition from regional ports.
- The framework requires a comprehensive assessment of the project's financial and economic feasibility, environmental impacts, and appropriate models for private-sector investment.
- A core component of the framework is establishing guidelines for transparent public communication and a process for gathering feedback from all stakeholders, particularly local communities.
- To implement the review, three subcommittees have been appointed to focus specifically on project development, environmental impact assessment, and public participation.
Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), announced the results of a meeting of the committee studying ways to drive the transport infrastructure development project linking transport between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, known as the Land Bridge project.
The committee, chaired by Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas, considered on Friday (May 15, 2026) its operating framework.
It will use as its base the results of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning’s 2025 feasibility study, preliminary design, environmental impact assessment and Business Development Model analysis for the transport infrastructure development project to develop the Southern Economic Corridor and link transport between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, together with the Senate’s 2022 study on the feasibility of linking Thailand’s Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea maritime transport routes.
A 2019 study jointly prepared by Chulalongkorn University and the NESDC will not be used in the committee’s consideration because it was based only on document research and a preliminary study.
Additional issues were designated for up-to-date review, including geopolitical factors and economic returns.
The meeting also discussed the issue of large ports in Singapore and Malaysia involving further investment and agreed that this factor should be included in the report.
Danucha confirmed that the study of all information was intended to keep to the set timeframe and obtain factual information, with the committee members having no pre-determined position.
The meeting’s key resolutions set the committee’s operating framework as follows:
- Compile relevant information in line with the current global geopolitical situation, progress on the Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) development plan, trends in changes to global supply chains, the readiness of transport networks both currently in place and under construction and development domestically and regionally, the potential of industries and economies in various parts of the country, economic growth trends in Thailand and trading partner countries, and the readiness of funding sources based on projections of the country’s financial and fiscal position.
- Assess the feasibility of the Land Bridge project and its impacts in various dimensions by considering the appropriateness of key assumptions used in studies of financial and economic feasibility and private-sector joint investment, as well as environmental impact reports.
- Appropriate development models.
- Set guidelines for holding and gathering views from all sectors, with approaches, strategies and a communication plan, as well as disclosure of project information under transparency principles. The guidelines should allow the public, local communities, the private sector and civil society to have adequate access to information, while promoting and carrying out a process to hear views from stakeholders and the public, particularly those in the area, comprehensively and in a way that supports constructive exchanges of views.
In addition, the meeting agreed that three subcommittees should be appointed:
- A subcommittee to consider ways to drive the development of the Land Bridge project, chaired by the secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council.
- A subcommittee to assess environmental impacts from the development of the Land Bridge project, chaired by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
- A subcommittee to consider and drive the public participation and public communication process, chaired by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport, to support the committee’s work efficiently in assessing development feasibility and impacts in various dimensions.
This includes hearing and gathering views from all sectors to support consideration of ways to drive the Land Bridge project.
The three subcommittees are to report their progress to the committee for consideration at its next meeting in June.
