BANGKOK: Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has confirmed that a Hong Kong company has been contracted to conduct a full feasibility study on the plan to build a canal across southern Thailand as an alternative international shipping route to the Malacca Straits.
Chavalit, who chairs a government committee on the Kra Canal, said Hong Kongs Phuket Pass Project Limited, a shipping company, had paid US$1mil (RM3.8mil) and entered into an initial agreement with the Thai government to conduct the study, which would cost up to US$50mil (RM190mil).