BANGKOK, Oct 26 (TNA) — Japan does not quit the Bangkok-Chiang Mai high-speed train project as Thai and Japanese authorities are carefully discussing its investment plan, said Sarawut Songsivilai, director-general of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning.
Both countries were studying possibilities thoroughly to ensure that the project would be worth investment and result in the highest benefits of Thailand, he said.
Mr Sarawut was denying earlier reports that Japan decided not to invest in the railway, its system, trains and maintenance and preferred to invest in property development near the railway’s stations.
According to him, Thailand’s Transport Ministry and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism signed a memorandum of cooperation in Tokyo on May 27, 2015, to develop the project.
They studied the feasibility of the project’s first phase from Bangkok to Phitsanulok during December 2015 and November 2017.
Both ministries have yet to conclude an investment plan for the project. In the latest meeting between concerned ministers from the two countries on Oct 19, Thailand still proposed Japan co-invest in the project as the project needed experiences and expertise from Japan, Mr Sarawut said.
He said that Japan International Cooperation Agency earlier concluded that property development along the railway and around its stations would make the project feasible.
Thailand proposed Japan implement the investment model that Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development used to invest in a high-speed railway in Texas in 2015. (TNA)
