BANGKOK, 30 July 2015 – The Minister of Transport is expediting the development of high speed railway route between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Transport Minister ACM Prachin Juntong spoke of the progress of the Bangkok – Chiang Mai high speed rail route which is being developed under the cooperation between the Thai and Japanese governments. He said the two sides are scheduled to conclude the project’s details for submission to the Cabinet by June 2016, and a government-to-government agreement will likely be reached by the end of the same year.
He said the project would require some land expropriation, and the construction was originally scheduled to commence in 2018. However, negotiations will be carried out to move up the construction to begin in 2017.
ACM Prachin added that the Japanese has particularly asked Thailand to separate the high-speed rail project from the existing rail track of Thailand for safety reasons, noting that this is the first time for the Japanese to lay the Shinkansen trains outside Japan.
