Bangkok hosts Smart Rail Congress & Expo 2014

BANGKOK, November 26 (TNA) - Over 100 private rail service operators worldwide are taking part in the Smart Rail Congress & Expo 2014, hosted by Bangkok from November 26-28, to showcase their innovative rail technologies. Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra inaugurated the Smart Rail Congress & Expo 2014 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) in the capital's Bang Na area on Wednesday. The three-day event, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, now becomes a platform for the global rail firms to demonstrate their new rail technologies which can serve the development of basic infrastructure in the rail transportation, linking Thailand with other member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Thailand has mega investment plans, totally worth over 800 billion baht, to develop extended rail transport networks over the next two years, while Bangkok eyes to become a rail transport hub in the region, where economic activities and investment are growing. An academic and adviser on the rail transportation, Kanchit Piewnuan, told reporters that Thailand will choose rail technologies which best suit the country, taking world rail service records of various firms into consideration. (TNA)