Thailand to carry on Pak Bara port project

BANGKOK, August 15 (TNA) - Thailand will proceed with a mega-investment plan on the development of Pak Bara port project in the southern Satun Province. Peerapol Thavornsuphacharoen, Director-General of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP), under the Thai Ministry of Transport, told journalists on Friday that the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has given a nod to the Pak Bara port project, which has been already included in his ministry's infrastructure development scheme over the next 4-8 years. Peerapol said his ministry's Marine Department, thus, plans to start the port construction in 2016 and open it by 2020, after which the new port would significantly boost Thailand's marine transport and cut national logistic costs. According to past studies, the Pak Bara deep seaport could support the transport of Thai exports, including Para rubber and seafood, from southern Thailand to other overseas economies and Thai business operators could considerably cut their costs because they would not have to then export their products through Singapore and Penang port in Malaysia. The new Pak Bara port is also designed to initially handle up to 800,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) yearly, while Thai business operators now export at least 300,000 TEUs of containers through Singapore and Malaysia annually. The OTP, meanwhile, plans to extend a double-track railway from Hat Yai, Thailand's southern business hub in Songkhla Province, to the Pak Bara port, which should create a land bridge linking the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. The construction cost of the Pak Bara port is estimated at 14-15 billion baht and authorities of the Marine Department and the NCPO will convince locals to support the project. (TNA)