Thai Government Faces Mounting Pressure To Scrap HSR Project

By Mohd Haikal Mohd Isa BANGKOK, April 4 (Bernama) -- The Thai government is under increasing pressure to scrap its multi-billion dollar High Speed Rail (HSR) project as talks with joint venture (JV) partner China, broke down, forcing Bangkok to go solo. Last week, while attending the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation meeting in Hainan, China, Thai Prime Minister Gen.Prayuth Chan-o-cha, abruptly announced that Bangkok would be the sole investor in the HSR project. Talks with China stumbled as both countries failed to agree on several issues, namely the interest rate for Beijing's loan on the project, and its insistence on exclusive right to develop land along the rail line. Government spokesman Maj-Gen Sansern Kaewkannerd in an immediate statement said, Prayuth's decision was based on national interest. "The Prime Minister made his decision based on the national interest, for the present and future," he said of the 870 km HSR project which would have connected Bangkok to Nong Khai, in Laos, and estimated by many to cost about US$12.93 billion (RM50 billion). Despite ditching Beijing as its JV partner for the project, Prayuth, according to Sansern, will still hire Chinese contractors for it. At the same time, Thailand will also use Chinese rail technology for the HSR. The venture will also be still referred as the Sino-Thai High Speed Rail project. Following the announcement to wholly invest in the mega project, the government said the overall HSR project will be scaled down and its distance halved to only 350 km in connecting Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima instead. The HSR trains, the government said, will travel at a speed of 250 km per-hour and mainly serve passengers. However, the government's decision to be the sole investor has invited criticism from former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva who called for a review of the project, claiming the downscaled version could not be justified economically. In a letter to the Prime Minister and published by the media, the Democrat Party leader said the financial and economic worthiness of the project could be "sharply eroded", as the HSR train would travel a much shorter distance. Without any connection to China's planned high speed train from Kunming to Nong Khai in Laos, Thailand's HSR will not achieve the annual projected passengers to make the project economically viable, he added. Thailand's Transport Ministry in an earlier assumption, Abhisit said, forecasted that the HSR from Bangkok to Nong Khai would attract an initial 7.5 million passengers annually and 20 million in the long term. "This assumption might not be viable under the government's new plan to have the high speed train run only to Nakhon Ratchasima province without any connection to China's high speed train," he added. In a commentary in Thailand's English daily, "The Nation", a few days ago, columnist Nophakun Limsamarnphun said it was better for Thailand to focus on implementing the double track rail system at this stage rather than the HSR. The double tracking railway system he said, will be good for connectivity with neighbouring countries and called for the HSR project be implemented at a later date instead. With only 20,000 passengers expected to use the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima HSR train daily, the service would face significant losses for years to come, he added. Nophakum also called for the government to open the HSR project to international bidding as it was the sole investor in the project. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong was quoted as saying, the government's investment in the scaled down HSR project will be slashed markedly from about US$7.76 billion (RM30 billion) to about US$4.39 billion (RM17 billion). As the impact from the decision by Thailand to go solo in the HSR project has yet to surface, local officials are confident that deal struck earlier to sell rice and rubber to China, will not suffer as a result. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn in a recent media engagement said the decision on the HSR project would have no bearing on the rice and rubber deals with Beijing as Thailand remained committed to use that country's rail technology. In an earlier deal struck between Thailand and China, Bangkok was to sell two millions tonnes of rice and 200,000 tonnes of rubber to China. --BERNAMA