VICTORIA CITY: Infrastructure developments in Thailand are proceeding erratically, thanks to rocky implementation and significant political shifts in the Southeast Asian country. Very little, however, is likely to impede plans to move ahead with rail and port-side improvements at Thailand’s largest port in the country’s main gateway in Laem Chabang.
The Port Authority of Thailand will build an L-shaped harbour that is 98.4 feet wide, and 393.7 to 410.1 feet in length. The water depth will average 32.8 feet and the construction costs are estimated at $55 million.
“The harbour will support one vessel with a tonnage capacity of 3,000 deadweight tonnage carrying 200 deadweight tonnage containers, and one with tonnage capacity of 1,000 deadweight tonnage carrying 100 deadweight tonnage containers. A shore crane and a container-arranging crane will be installed to support up to 300,000 [20-foot-equivalent units each] year,” PAT’s website said.
The Thai government also gave permission for minimum and maximum charges of $45.52 and $93.70 respectively at the harbor. Laem Chabang, in Thailand’s Chonburi province, is the country’s largest port, benefiting from its proximity to the Gulf of Thailand. The upgrades at Laem Chabang are part of a wider plan to improve transport and logistics system throughout the country.
The Thai government is keen on dual-tracking the country’s railways and installing an electrical train for its Southern Economic Corridor. This route would connect Kanchanaburi to Bangkok with one line heading on to Aranyaprathet on the Cambodian border and a second down to Laem Chabang.
Dual-tracking would fit in with what many foreign shippers have long demanded: more capacity on the national rail network to move goods around, and especially into Bangkok, to end cargo bottlenecks to and from Thailand’s ports.
“This is really important for Japanese companies that have so many distribution centers [here],” said Pichet Kunadhamraks, senior civil engineer at the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Transport, Thailand. The Thai government has also been promoting logistics centers and Special Economic Zones, or SEZs, throughout, but not exclusively for, Thailand.
