Thailand’s Ministry of Transport is now pushing 17 infrastructure projects covering land, rail, water, and air transport.
Minister of Transport Arkhom Termpittayapaisith revealed the latest progress on the government’s infrastructure development projects on a national TV broadcast late last week, and said that the government is now driving 17 projects to improve transportation throughout the Kingdom.
For water transport projects, the government is currently in the process of developing 19 piers along the Chao Phraya River to increase convenience and safety, and to accommodate the use of an E-ticket system that will allow the same ticket to be used with buses and metro train services.
The government is also developing coastal ports to help reduce logistics costs and better accommodate tourists from ships, with a goal for Thailand to become the marine hub of ASEAN.
For air transport infrastructure projects, several development plans for airports are underway including the construction of phase two facilities and the third runway at Suvarnabhumi Airport (pictured), the renovation of Terminal 2 at Don Muaeng Airport which is expected to be open for service in November 2015, and the extension of Phuket Airport that is expected to be completed in February 2016. It is expected these air transport projects alone will help Thailand be capable of accommodating 100 million passengers per year – significantly higher than the current capacity of 45 million.
The Minister of Transport said that all 17 transportation projects are expected to help stimulate national GDP to increase by one percent each year during the total project duration period of eight years.