New motorway to connect Bangkok with Thai South

BANGKOK, September 10 (TNA) - The Department of Highways, under the Thai Ministry of Transport, will construct a new motorway on the Nakhon Pathom-Cha-am route, which will connect Bangkok with the Thai South when it is completed. Prapas Kong-Ied, Director-General of the State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO), told journalists on Monday that the Commission Policy on Private Participation in State Affairs (PPP), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, has approved in principle the Department of Highways' new motorway Nakhon Pathom-Cha-am (M8) project, worth about 80 billion baht. Prapas said the M8 motorway project, under the PPP Fast Track measure, will be developed in the form of the PPP Net Cost, in which the Thai public sector will invest over 55 billion baht and the rest will be financed by the private sector. The SEPO chief acknowledged that the 30-year M8 operational project, after its construction is completed, will be part of the Department of Highways' master plan on the construction and the development of city-to-city motorways, aimed to become a high standard land route connecting Bangkok with the southern Thai region and relieving traffic on the existing Petchakasem Road (Highway No.4). Besides, the PPP has also resolved that the Ministry of Transport and other relevant agencies speed up other transport projects under the PPP Fast Track measure to be within their timeframes, including the extended routes of the purple-line and the orange-line electric train systems, worth over 366 billion baht, and new provincial mass transit systems in Chiang Mai, Phuket and Nakhon Ratchasima. The SEPO chief revealed, meanwhile, that he is scheduled to visit Hong Kong and Singapore during September 17-20 for roadshows aimed to attract international investors to invest in the 45-billion baht-Thailand Future Fund (TFF), 40 per cent of which will be opened for investors abroad, to be used to finance the Thai Ministry of Transport's new land route projects. (TNA)