Thailand to take southern land bridge project on roadshow in 2024

BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): The Transport Ministry will launch a roadshow of the 1-trillion-baht southern Land Bridge project next year in a bid to grab the attention of big foreign investors.

Key points:

• Two deep-sea ports, land bridge to be ready by 2030

• Foreign investors to be given over 50% stake in joint venture

• Operations contract to last for 50 years

The aim is to attract large foreign conglomerates to build two deep-sea ports and a land link between them.

Panya Chupanich, director of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP), said the Cabinet recently told the Transport Ministry that it can go ahead with its ambitious plan to turn Thailand into a key marine logistics hub with the land bridge project.

The Cabinet also instructed the ministry to take the roadshow overseas to invite foreign investors to bid for the project, Panya added

The OTP is currently in charge of the project, but once the government enacts the Southern Economic Corridor bill next year, the project will be taken over by the Office of the Southern Economic Corridor (OSEC).

Panya said his agency has completed studies of the prospective locations of the two deep-sea ports and has settled on the Andaman Sea’s Ao Ang Bay in Ranong and the Gulf of Thailand’s Riew Cape in Chumphon.

He said about 1 trillion baht will be needed for building the ports, a motorway and a double-track railway linking the ports.

The expected costs are as follows:

• 300 billion baht for the Chumphon deep-sea port

• 330 billion baht for the Ranong deep-sea port

• 140 billion baht for developing a goods transport system between the ports

• 220 billion baht for developing land and rail links between the ports

However, Panya said the study is not fully complete as OTP officials have yet to visit the selected sites to come up with proper estimates before compiling an Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) report.

Panya added that the OTP believes the roadshow can begin next year and will help sound out the opinions of both Thai and foreign investors.

These opinions, he said, will then be used to draft the request for proposal to call a bid in early 2025, he added.

Once a winner is selected, the contract should be signed in the third quarter of 2025.

He added that the roadshow will be held in countries where investors may be interested, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, France, and Germany.

Foreign investors will be allowed to hold more than 50% of the joint venture that bids for the project, as OTP realises that the cost will be high.

The winner of the bid will be allowed to hold a concession of the ports’ operations for 50 years, so the project is appealing enough for foreign investors.

For the sake of mobility and convenience, the bidding will be done in one contract for one operator of both ports, the motorway and rail link, Panya added.

The ports should go into operation by 2030, he added.

OTP expects the volume of goods transported through the two ports to be:

• 19.4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) via the Ranong port

• 13.8 million TEU via the Chumphon port

Meanwhile, a Transport Ministry source said the government expected the draft on the Southern Economic Corridor bill to be enacted within December and OSEC should be ready to take charge of the project and hold bidding from April to June 2025. The source believes the Cabinet will approve the contractor by August 2025.

Construction is expected to be completed within five years after that and the ports should go into operation by October 2030, the source added.