Thailand's general election not affect high speed train project

BANGKOK, February 15 (TNA) - The joint development of a new high speed train project between the Thai and the Chinese governments is on progress despite next month's new general election in Thailand. Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith made the remarks in Bangkok on February 14, after chairing a meeting of an official committee in charge of the management of the Sino-Thai high speed train project, linking Bangkok with Nong Khai Province in the Thai Northeast. Arkhom told journalists that the first phase-railway construction of the Sino-Thai high speed train project between Bangkok and the northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province has been completed by about 50 per cent, while the construction of its second phase will be started after an agreement with a contractor is signed, expected by next month. Arkhom said that the bidding for winning contractors for the construction of another 144.06 kilometers and the remaining 91.25 kilometers of the project will be opened late this month and next month respectively. The minister announced that a new meeting of a joint committee of the Thai and the Chinese governments, tasked with proceeding with the project, is scheduled to be held in Beijing during February 27-March 1, 2019. According to the minister, Thursday's meeting also endorsed proposals on the improvement of local public transport infrastructure systems in the central Ayutthaya and Saraburi Provinces, raised by an official sub-committee, to bridge and support the Sino-Thai high speed train project in the future. Meanwhile, Worawut Mala, Acting Governor of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), told reporters that SRT has been assigned by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who oversees economic affairs, to accelerate negotiations with the Chinese government on pending issues of the project towards a conclusion with mutually-agreed benefits, including the extension of Beijing's guarantee on the well-function of bogies of the electric high speed train project to the world standard of a two year-period, from only one year. (TNA)